


Distraction

by Nerdy_JD



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Blood and Gore, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Multi, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-03 20:09:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 30,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5305151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdy_JD/pseuds/Nerdy_JD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sensei sends the ninja on their first solo mission to train, learn and come back stronger. But what if one comes back broken and hurt<br/>Used only as a distraction</p><p>He ran away and now I want him back</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Going away

**Author's Note:**

> Whoop my first fanfic, hope you like it and feedback is very much welcome  
> Enjoy....

The room was cold, that's the first thing he noticed. The floor was hard too. But that didn't matter, what mattered was why everthing hurt. His eyes were still closed when he tried moving his hands, it started off slow with just the twitching of his finger tips and then escalated to flexing his fingers. He was laying on his side, he was cold and wet. The movement in his fingers spread to his hands then his lower arm and finally his entire arm and shoulder. Agonisingly slowly he lifted his arm until a sudden spike of pain forced him to let it drop down again.  His expression turned to a frown as he bit his lip in an effort to ignore the pain. Heat started making its way from his shoulder through his entire back. a forced groan escaped his chest as the pain increased, the burning, sharp, unwanted pain. Moments that felt like years passed when finally he had gotten used to the bite. With what little strength he could muster,  he opened his eyes to get a look at where he was. 

There was a door there, a bright red wooden door, with three bars forming a tiny window higher up. Or at least it looked like three, his vision was blurry but it started clearing up quickly. He breathed in as he felt his lungs begin to burn from lack of oxygen but that, however welcoming it sounds, was a very bad idea. The moment air made its way through his nose he regretted it. The dust he had not seen seemed to block off his air ways even more and the dirt in the air made his body erupt in coughing fits. He tried his best not to shake as more loud and violent coughs broke out. He couldn't move his arms, too much pain, he still couldn't feel his legs or his head and he refused to risk putting himself in more pain by letting the coughs shake his body. That's when the violent shaking came to an end, he had gotten used to the air by now, and he let his body relax. But the peace didn't last long as he felt something warm trickle out of his mouth, he couldn't tell if it was saliva or something else. The door carefully opening stopped his train of thought as a person stepped inside. Either that person was really tall or he was just really tiny right now. "Well, well, well. Look who's awake again." The fuzzy looking man had light unkept brown hair with a plain black shirt and pants on. He crouched down to his level and folded his hands over his knees. "How are you feeling?" The bitter taste of amusement was present in his tone as he faked a sympathetic look. "Stil not talking?" Another question to taunt the fact that he couldn't even move his mouth to speak. The man reached over to his shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze, causing him to forget about everything else, all the pain, and just scream. His throat hurt, his legs hurt, his face hurt, everything just hurt. The pain then stopped but a gentle throbbing was still present as the man retracted his hand and wiped it over his pants leg. He was breathing heavily and the sudden pain only made him feel even more dizzy. "I'll be seeing you later, Fireboy." That sentence, though so simple, held power. Power over him, power over pain and power over life and life and death. 

\------------------LINE BREAK---------------

"Hey Kai, are you ready yet?" Jay called from outside on the deck of the Bounty. Said boy came running with his red and black duffel bag securely over his shoulder. "Come on, Cole and Zane already left." Jays nagging was getting annoying now and his only been talking for about ten minutes. "Wait, just hold on." Kai took out his phone and pulled a funny face while standing in front of Jay. The ginger smiled at the phone before the brunette snapped the picture. "Memories, our first solo mission." Kai said as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket. "Come on, we're already late." Jay jumped off the side of the ship with Kai following closely. The warm sand could be easily felt through the thin soles as the walked across the desert. "Remind me again why we can't use our dragons." Jays over dramatic sigh that came next showed how agitated he had become over the past half an hour of walking. "Sensei said that we need to learn how to cope without our elements."  
"But I love my element." With that Kai created a small flame in the palm of his hand, before shaking it away to run and catch up with Jay. Said ginger just rolled his eyes at the childish brunette. Deciding to fill the unnatural silence that had fallen between them, Kai spoke up, "So, where are you going for the next month." Jay turned his attention back to Kai with a huge grin across his face. "I'm going to Borg industries to set up security systems and help develope tech upgrades." Of cause he would be excited about that, the guy has a mini meltdown every time he sees Borg. "Well I'm going undercover in this human trafficking gang."  
"Wow, really? You sure you can handle that?" Jays concern was evident in his tone and facial expression. "Yeah I mean all I have to do is gather info. How hard can it be?"

\-----------------LINE BREAK---------------

He woke up again but this time to a cleaner and warmer environment, though he didn't remember falling asleep. At least opening his eyes we much easier, though immediately after he shut it tight again. A blinding light shone directly over his face. He tried again and this time with better luck, the room was white with no windows at all. It had one grey door and a tiny table that was placed next to his head. He was laying down, on his back this time, but his wrists were strapped. The effort he used to break free wasn't enough as he still remained securely in one place. At least his legs were free. To test them out he pulled his right leg up. Not a lot of pain came, it was just stiff. He did the same with the left, the same result. His throat was dry and scratchy, next to him was a small plastic cup which he assumed had water in it. But he couldn't move his arms so how could he get it, he couldn't. He was in too much pain anyway and who knows what these people would do to him if he got loose. Who were ther anyway, they were only supposed to be a small group but this organisation seemed to be a lot bigger. He needed to get home, tell Sensei, tell the gang, tell anybody.  
The grey door swung open as the same man from earlier stepped in again. "Hey there sleepy head. You feeling better?" He didn't bother talking, it still hurt, but he did struggle against the restraints to make his distress known. "Oh those are just to keep you from running away. I'll take them off soon though." The man's light hearted talking did not at all comfort him, so instead waiting for him to start talking again he looked towards the cup. "Oh are you thirsty?" He nodded his head slowly with pleading eyes. The man took the cup and put it to his lips, slowly tilting it the more he drank. It wasn't much water but it was enough to make to dryness go away. "Are you ready to talk yet Kai?"


	2. Hurting and Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second Chapter :) the fun parts start

Kai had to choose his next words carefully, he wanted to ask so many questions. "Who are you?" He asked frowning. "My names not really important now is it?" The man answered with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Its my turn now. What are you most afraid of?"  
'Why would he ask that'  
"Why do you want to know?" Kai replied while looking at the man like he was crazy. "Just to make the game a little interesting." The small smile turned into a full out grin now. "Okay it's my turn now right, so how to you know my name?" Might as well play along with him right, just to find out what he's planning. 

"I know everything about you Kai Smith. Your the red ninja of fire, your seventeen years old, you have a younger sister named Nya. Should I go on?"  
Kai was angry now, if he knew this much about him then what would he know about Nya? "Let me go." He said in the most commanding voice he could come up with, though it didn't make much of an impact. It only seemed to make the man angrier. "Its not your turn now is it. It's mine. Are you left handed or right handed?"  
'What kind of question is that? This guy's crazy.  
"Right handed." He was lying and they both seemed to know it, the man shook his head. "No your not." Kai let out a huff of annoyance at the man.  
"Lets play a little game. You sit still while I put a smile on your face." There's no way he was going to smile for this nut-job, Kai turned his head face away from the man. But he had already begun the game. He grabbed Kai's chin, turning his head and produced a sharp silver dagger from his side. Kai's eye's widened in panic as he tried struggling out of the tight grip. The blade started dragging from the corners of his mouth to the ends of his ears, the pain was excruciating and he could feel his face stretching. "My father always told me I could bring a smile to anyone's face." The man's grin only seemed to grow wider with the more pain he caused. Tears started pouring out of Kai's eyes as the man started with the other side of his face. The movement was slow and the blade cut deep, crimson poured out of the wounds and down his neck. "Stop! Please STOP!" His cries fell on deaf ears as the man only seemed to go slower than before. "Talking only makes it worse you know."  
Then it stopped. Kai was left a whimpering, shuddering mess with blood and tears streaming down his face. The man just smiled, admiring his masterpiece, then left. 

'Make it stop! Please make it stop! Please, please' Kai repeated in his head over and over again hoping that some force would somehow take the pain away. He couldn't move his mouth so his pleas were silently cried out in his head. Even breathing hurt, his mouth stung as air crept through the open cuts. Kai's shuddering drowned out the sound of another person coming in, this time a girl. She had chains around her wrists that rattled when she walked, she wore a blood soaked shirt with long slightly baggy pants. She was shaking when she stepped into the room, slowly walking over to stand at Kai's side.  
"J-just hold s-still." She croaked out, fear present in every word. Kai opened his eyes and did what he was told. She had shoulder-length black hair with light blue eyes, her lip was trembling and it was clear that she was scared. Slowly she lifted up her chained hands to touch his cuts, Kai's eye's widened and he tried moving away.  
"I-I'm not g-gonna hurt you. I p-promise." Kai still didn't want to believe her, but it looked like he didn't have a choice so he just stayed still and took slow even breaths. The girl resumed what she was doing and gently touched the cuts. And by some miracle it started closing up, it didn't even leave a scar. She continued tracing her finger along the cuts, that's when Kai noticed her hand. From her wrist down, her hand was glowing white. "I'm a-almost done." She said as she saw the fearful look in his eyes, then she trailed her finger to the corner of his mouth and she was done. There was a white cloth that he hadn't noticed sitting on the table next to the empty cup. The girl picked it up and started cleaning the blood and tears up, by the time she was done the cloth was stained a deep crimson. "J-just try t-to do what he says n-next time, o-okay?" She gaved him a sad, forced smile as she tried to avoid eye-contact. The girl turned around and was about to walk out the door when Kai whispered, "Thank you." She didn't turn around but she did nod on acknowledgment, then she left while slowly closing the door behind her. 

\--------------------TIME SKIP------------------

"Just keep running, they can't get to you, they can't catch you. She said they wouldn't catch you." Kai kept muttering to himself as he ran through the almost empty streets of Ninjago City. Here and there you would see a car pass by, a few shops were still open and in dark alleys you could see a few people huddling around a fire. Kai just kept running, kept muttering reassuring words to himself. "When I get home they can help me, yeah, they can protect me. Make me feel better." A hysterical smile spread across his face. He made it to the desert, his feet were starting to sink in with every step and sand stuck to the damp cloth of his gi. It was dark, pitch black, but he had to keep moving.  
"Have to keep moving, or they'll find me. Please don't find me, please, please, please..." The bright full moon was his only company as he tried to remember the way back. Then the ship's light came into view, behind a steep sand dune was the Bounty in all her old ship glory. The smile present on his face slowly faded away.  
"What if I'm just leading them here?"  
'No your not, they can help you'  
"But I'm putting them in danger."  
'They can protect themselves'  
"But-"  
'They can help me'  
He was having an argument with himself, which side do you choose. But his friends could help him, they had to help him.  
They had to...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is, the second chapter. Hope you liked it as much as I enjoys writing it. Just in case theres some confusion, this chapter is set between season 5 and 6


	3. Finding help

"I'm gonna be okay. Sensei will know what to do, Cole will help me, Zane will help me, Jay will help me, Lloyd will help me, Nya... Nya will help me." Climbing up the anchor was ten times harder than it used to be, he jumped on the deck with a soft 'thud'. But that small noise was enough to wake everyone up, Zanes falcon went crazy as it started squawking loudly and red lights started flashing everywhere.  
'Oh no nonononono! '  
Cole and Zane came rushing out with weapons drawn, Jay came following behind half asleep. "Couldn't the bad guys wait until morning to attack us?" Jay said while swinging his nun-chucks around aimlessly.  
"Show yourself!" Cole said in threatening manner making Kai jump in his spot in the shadows. "Its okay, they won't hurt you right. Right?" He mumbled to himself. Kai came walking out slowly from the shadows with his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I-it's just m-me guys." He stuttered nervously. Cole lowered his scythe and exhaled, Zane gave a warm smile while Jay ran up and hugged him. "Kai your back!" He screamed and then the ginger engulfed him in a bear hug. Kai immediately tensed, his heart was racing and his palms started sweating.  
'Its okay, Jay won't hurt you. He won't hurt you'  
Kai was slowly breathing and trying to take control again. "Hey, you alright?" Jay asked as Kai looked down to stare at his pale blue eyes.  
'It looks just like hers'  
"Yeah I'm okay." Then Jay looked down at his PJ's wide eyed. "Kai your bleeding!" All eyes were now on Kai as he slowly lowered his head to look at a large patch of red running right around his upper body. "Yeah, I guess I am." He mumbled mostly to himself but the others clearly heard him. "Come brother, we must get you cleaned up." Zane said as he stepped closer.  
'Trust him Kai'  
"Okay." He replied meekly. 

\--------------------LINE BREAK-----------------------

Zanes silver, metallic, nindroid face bore the same blank expression when he busied himself with Kai's injuries. "Where did you get such injuries?" Zane asked while he took out the alcohol to clean the wound.  
'They cut me, they hurt me'  
"I scrapped myself against a wall." It was a petty excuse and Kai noticed how emotionless his tone was, just thinking about them brought fear into his heart. "You need to take your gi off." Next to Zane was another black and red gi, but then Zane would see the other markings on him. So Kai just lifted his shirt to reveal the cut, Zane rose an eyebrow at this. "Kai. It would be easier if I could see the full extent of your wounds." Kai refused to make eye-contact.  
'Listen to him, you know what happens when you don't listen!'  
"Its only this one. Promise." Kai still didn't want to make eye-contact, instead he stared down at the suddenly very interesting floor. The medical bay was very different from the rest of the Bounty, it was white and grey and somehow it was always clean, no matter how bad some of the guys injuries were. Kai remebered one time Jay got his leg cut and there was blood everywhere. Nya was freaking out, Sensei had to give her a calming tea just to stop her from crying.  
Where was Nya anyway?  
"Zane," the nindroid looked up from cleaning the cut. "Where's my sister?" Zane moved on to wrapping the wound now. "Sensei took her with him to buy more tea's. Misako accompanied them as well." Kai nodded his head in response. 

It was awkward the way Zane was wrapping the bandage around his body. The titanium friend knealed in front of Kai and maneuvered his arms around him. "We are done. Are you sure that this is the only injury you have?" Zane then asked when he was done. "Positive." Kai replied when pulling his gi back into place. "You might have to change brother." Zane walked out of the med-bay doors and left Kai alone to change. 

'They left me alone'

Kai jumped up and ran to the door, ignoring the burning itchiness of the new bandage. He reached the silver handle and slowly tried opening it, it was locked. His efforts then became a little more frantic. 

\----------------------LINE BREAK-----------------

"Is he alright?" Jay asked with a slightly scared expression. Cole was leaning against the side of the wall while Lloyd sat on a vacant chair drinking a cup of coffee. Lloyds light blond hair was a complete tangled mess, a perfect example of bed head. He looked like he would fall asleep at any moment now, it was taking all his willpower to stay awake. "Kai appears to be physically fine but I am worried for his mental health. I have locked him in the medical bay." Zane replied calmly. "Wouldn't locking him in a room only make it worse?" Lloyd then asked while looking up from his coffee. "But if I had let him out, he could have injured us or himself." Zane defended. "Zane has a point. Who knows how sane Kai is, I mean, he didn't even notice he was bleeding until I said so." Jay spoke up. "I'm going to check up on him." Cole added his voice to the discussion, then he removed himself from the room and made his way to the med-bay. 

\-----------------------LINE BREAK---------------------

'Oh what am I gonna do, I have to get out, get away. But they locked me in! '

Kai was now pacing up and down the room, he could faintly hear them talking in the next room. The blood on his gi was drying now and it only made it harder to move, glancing over at the clean one folded neatly on the table Kai decided that a change of clothes was needed. He quickly threw off the blood-stained cloth and began changing into the clean, dry gi. Kai's back and arms had new tattoos on them, down the middle on his spine then it spread over his shoulders and finally it wrapped around both his arms. The tattoo was made up of dots and lines, thick and thin, and was absolute torture to endure. The tattoos were pitch black, they said it was to show how much you were worth but they didn't look like they made an effort to sell him. 

Just as Kai had completed his task of getting dressed a soft knock was heard at the door. "Kai, it's me Cole, can I come in?" Kai checked over his clothing making sure everything was covered. The gi went up his neck so that helped, he also had black gloves on so that could cover up his tattoo as well. "Y-you can come in." He croaked out, hating the way his voice sounded, he was so thirsty. Luckily when Cole stepped inside he had a bottle of water with him. "Thought you might be thirsty." From his black and white PJ's Cole had changed into his own gi, one similar to what Kai was wearing. The only difference was that he had intricately designed patterens in silver around the waist and neck and the colours were obviously different. 

Kai nodded at his accurate assumption, thankful for the water but still hesitant to accept it. He stood a good distance away from Cole, the bed he had been sitting on made a barrier between them. "Here." Cole said as he put the plastic bottle in the middle of the bed. "Zane said that your injuries aren't that bad. Do you want to talk about them?" Cole kept eye-contact with th elder male the entire time while Kai tried his best to avoid it. Those bandages are really itchy, it surprised Kai that Zane hadn't noticed the tattoo. "I scrapped against a wall." He answered, he didn't sound convincing and Cole sure wasn't buying it but the raven-haired boy nodded his head anyway. "How are you feeling?"  
"Fine." Kai answered quickly, still avoiding eye-contact, he wanted the questions to stop. "And mentally?" 

'What? Mentally? He thinks I'm crazy, he thinks I came back like some sad, depressed person that was traumatised!'

Kai shot his head up and looked Cole in the eye, fighting the strong urge to glare. "I'm fine." Kai replied coldly. 

'What was I thinking expecting them to help me. All they're doing is asking more questions. Questions that I need to answer'

"Kai, you were gone for two months."

'Wow had it really been that long?'

"And all you can say is 'fine'." Cole's voice was gentle but Kai could still feel the sting it carried with it, he felt guilty. 

'Why can't you just tell them! They can help you!'

The annoying voice inside his head was screaming at him now. "I-I'm not ready to talk yet."Kai spoke up after a long silence had dragged between the two. "Thats all you needed to say Kai, if you don't wanna talk about it then that's fine. Just know that I'm here for you, we all are." Cole put a small smile on his face as Kai looked up. 

'Maybe they can help me. Maybe... '

Cole turned back to the door and spoke up again, "I'm sure the rest of the guys also want to speak to you. Expect visits, and I'll call Sensei and Nya to let them know you came home." Cole smiled again before walking out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This actually wasn't that interesting to write...


	4. Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai goes over his tattoos as well as a flash-back and a little... 'chat' with Lloyd

As soon as the dark black and silver of Cole's gi had vanished behind the door of the now quiet room, Kai jumped desperately to the water bottle. He pulled the cap open and chugged down the clear refreshing liquid. Kai hadn't noticed how long ago he had a decent amount of water, they usually only gave him enough to survive on. Once it ran down his throat, everything stopped hurting, it was such a relief. Then a small flash of reflected light bounced into his vision, turning his head Kai saw a small mirror against the wall. Slowly he put the empty piece of plastic down and walked over to the shimmering object, in the reflection he didn't see the Kai he remembers. His hair had grown, that was the first thing he noticed, it lacked its usual spikes and was now wavy and shoulder-length. he brushed the long bangs out of his face and to the back. His chocolate eyes had dark circles around them, showing how tired he was and his eyes had the slightest colour of red in them. Though what really caught his attention was the new- or rather different -skin that made a clean line on either side of his mouth. Kai still remembered that day clearly, the crazy man, the sharp dagger and the pale eyed girl. She helped him escape, helped him break away from the hell he was living in, she healed him when they took it too far. 

His sad brown eyes then drifted lower to his neck, Kai tugged down the stretchy material to reveal black lines snaking their way from the back to the front. Two thick lines crept their way forward and ended just before it hit his chest, two rows of dots on either side accompanied the two ebony snakes. Kai remembers over hearing one of them talk about what the tattoo actually means. The bigger it is, the more valuable you are. Some people had small tattoos, only on their arms or wrists while others had bigger ones like Kai which stretched over their back and sometimes went over their arms. Then finally there were those rare individuals that had the full body ink, everything was covered aside from their faces. Kai had also heard something about him being around for someone else, to 'keep him preoccupied' for a while, so there was little chance of him actually going up for sale. 

Kai let the material fall back into place securely around his neck before moving further down. He pulled off one of his gloves and his dominant hand ghosted over the dark lines that curled around on his skin. They came down straight from the arm over the wrist and spread out from there, the thinner black lines swirled around each of his fingers when they finally stopped at the tips. Kai noticed that his hands had no dots on them, only more thin lines that branched out from the sides. In comparison to the rest of his body ink, his hands were far less elegant looking. They would be a pain to hide from the team. 

He slipped the dark glove back over his hand, once again covering up the dark swirls of his past. The brown haired man that always came to visit had always liked seeing his tattoos. He would roll up his sleeves or take off everything besides his pants just to see them. Sometimes on good days he would just turn Kai around and admire them, occasionally twirling the tip of his knife on one of the dots. Kai doesn't remember a time he didn't see the man not smile, especially when he plays with his two daggers. Sometimes he would draw patterns with them on Kai's palm while singing what sounded like a child's lullaby and when Kai's objecting got too loud he would stop and dig the knife further into the already torn skin. Kai would shut his mouth tight and only muffled whimpers would be heard for the rest of the time he was there. 

He never wanted to see that man again, his definition of fun was twisted and evil. He hated that brown-haired man. 

\-------LINE BREAK (MEMORY)------

"Knock, knock!" Came a cheerful voice from the other side of the dreaded red door. Kai yelped and sprang to the furthest corner of his bed, pulling his kness to his chest and burying his face between the two. 

'No, not again, please not again'

The dark crimson red of the door always reminded Kai of blood and when the man stepped through it, it reminded him of the person that who stained it. "Come now, don't hide from me." Kai peered over his knees to look at the man smiling at him, the door was closed, locked tight and the man stood there with his signature two daggers, one held firmly in each hand. "B-but you already came. Earlier t-today." Kai sounded like a tiny child, his eyes were pleading and his brain was praying that this was only a dream. "But I'm bored and playing with you is just so much fun." The man made sure to show his enthusiasm by swinging his arms and hands around, but all that did was make Kai flinch and curl up into an even smaller ball. The man saw his distress and slowly sat down on the bed, putting his daggers down and touching Kai's shoulder. Not once did his chocolate brown eyes meet the man's unnatural red ones and he made no motions of moving away when the man's cold had connected to Kai's warm body. "Please don't ignore me. I want to paint today." The man's soft voice broke the deathly silence between them and Kai slowly lifted up his head to face the older male. "Y-your only painting?" Kai asked with a silent plea laced in his tone. "Only painting." The man repeated with a smile and newfound happiness in his eyes. 

In the corner of the cold, grey room was an easel, empty pots and a variety of different brushes. On the floor, resting peacefully on a stool was a large pallet of paint that had all sorts of colours. The man quickly stood up and walked over to the equipment and pulled them over to in front of the bed where he set up the paint and stool. His happy face peered over at Kai from behind the easel and Kai forced a tiny smile to his face. 

'His only going to paint'

Kai echoed in his head, trying to reassure himself that this wasn't that bad. "I want to paint you back." The man said plainly as he took an empty pot and one of his daggers. He sat on the stool and waited patiently for Kai to come closer. The man had a fascination with blood and felt it needed to be apart of everything he did, even painting. He would never use the colour red, only Kai's blood. After crawling over the bed to sit on the edge Kai reached out his hand and hovered it over the soon to be full pot. The man watched with slight awe as the sharp blade cut a clean line across his palm, letting the deep crimson ooze out and drip down. Kai had to bite his lip to restrain himself from crying. Another fascination the man had was seeing someone in pain, he would always take his time when hurting you, he always dragged the knife slowly. Once the blade had slide across and moved away from his hand Kai let out a shaky breath he had been holding in. It didn't take long for the small pot to fill up and soon Kai's hand was being messily bandaged. The man turned around and got ready to paint, waiting for his muse to sit in the right position. 

Kai slowly took off his shirt, pulling it gently over his head to avoid hurting himself even more. Once the thin cloth was removed it revealed the brand new tattoos they had put on him yesterday as well as some cuts he had gotten earlier. Outlining the black was a slight tint of red, barely visible, showing how sore they still were. The man reached out to touch his shoulder, making Kai flinch at the sudden pain that shot through his body. The man rubbed over the rest of his back, not missing a single ebony line or dot. "Does it hurt?" He asked quietly. Kai nodded and then quickly responded, "Yes." The man withdrew his hand and picked up one of the many brushes and dipped it in the blood. Kai positioned himself on the bed so that he was sitting cross-legged with his arms on either side of him slightly spaced out. His back was turned and his head was down, letting his brown, wavy locks fall over his face and cover his eyes. 

\--------LINE BREAK-------

"So how did it go?" Lloyd asked when he emerged from the kitchen, probably from putting his discarded cup away. "He was scared and he didn't really talk. Said he wasn't ready yet." Cole responded while a thoughtful expression occupied his features. "What do we do now?" Jay voiced the question that was on everyone's mind. "I'm going to call Sense, tell him that Kai's back. Jay and Lloyd should talk to him. And Zane, run whatever tests you can to find out if Kai's hiding any other injuries we should know about." They all silently agreed to Cole's orders and walked off out of the room. 

Jay and Lloyd stood in front of the med-bays door, each wondering what they were going to say. "Maybe you should go in first, you were the last one to see him before we left." Lloyd insisted as he kept staring at the grey door. "Why me? Your his training buddy." Jay turned to the side to face the blonde with a bewildering expression on his face. "Age before beauty." Lloyd said with a smile tugging on his lips. "Exactly." Jay replied with an equally smug grin on his face. Since tomorrow's tea made affected Lloyd, technically he was slightly older than Jay and Cole physically. "Fine." Lloyd huffed out in defeat and Jay did a short dance behind his back. "Kai, it's Lloyd and Jay. We're coming in okay." Lloyd knocked on the door and twisted the handle open. In the far corner of the room stood Kai with a very empty water bottle laying on the bed. Scared green met a cold, empty brown as the two made eye-contact for the first time in over two months. Lloyd was surprised to see that the usually spiky-haired teacher was nothing like he remembered, the longer hair, the darker eyes. This wasn't their Kai. Jay peeked in from behind Lloyd and concluded that it's better if Kai only sees them one at a time. He closed the door swiftly behind the two and waited patiently for Lloyd to finish. 

"Kai?" Lloyd asked in a frightened child-like manner, he brought his hands to the front where he nervously started fiddling with his fingers. "C-Cole said we should each talk to you, if you wanted to talk..." Lloyd trailed off and he was looking around, trying to take his attention away from Kai. "I said I didn't want to talk." Kai's voice was cold and hardly held any emotion to it. Lloyd's head snapped up at the voice, pausing his fingers before continuing to fiddle again. Kai's brown eyes zeroed in on his fingers and eyed them with a scowl. "You shouldn't do that. People will see when your nervous or afraid." The blond boy immediately ceased all movement in his body and dropped his hands to his side's while looking wide-eyed at his trainer. "S-sorry."   
"Why are you apologising?" Lloyd then subconsciously brought his hands forward again only to look down and rip them apart. He looked back up, big green eyes searching of an answer. "I don't k-know." His voice was breaking and he cursed his sudden weakness. "Are you scared?" Kai was now taking small steps towards the younger boy and Lloyd was deciding whether he should back up or stand his ground. But it seemed that the choice was not his to make as his body was frozen with fear. 

"N-no." Was Lloyd's only reply, by now Kai was only a few steps away from him. "Your lying aren't you?" Kai held an unimpressed look on his face. "No, I-I'm not. W-why should I be afraid?" Lloyd said one thing while his body was saying another as it was visibly shaking. 

"Because I can hurt you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was fun to write, took me a while though :)


	5. Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai's talk with Lloyd and a memory

Lloyd's face paled as the words hit him hard, it was as if his heart had shattered. "But your supposed to protect me." The words came out hoarse and meak. Lloyd's emerald eyes were glossy and his pale nose turned a light shade of red. His hurt eyes were staring into the very soul of Kai and he couldn't help but feel guilty. This was Lloyd, his little brother in arms and he just threatened to hurt him.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Kai said softly after a few moments if silence. Lloyd looked up at him again with those sad puppy eyes, Kai turned his head down in shame. He didn't want Lloyd to judge him, to think of him as the monster they tried to turn him into. The fear, sadness and confusion never left the young blondes face and he understood, Kai was under a lot of pressure from whatever he went through. He needed time and right now that's all they could give him.  
  
After blinking in an effort to rid the burning in his eyes Lloyd felt warm streaks of water run down his face. It was relieving and at the same time embarrassing, small drops of water splashed into the floor at his feet. Lloyd stared intently at Kai, and cautiously took a step forward. Then he waited to see if Kai would respond, he didn't so that means he either doesn't mind or he didn't notice. Then while sucking a strained breath Lloyd took another hesitant step forward. At the movement Kai turned towards Lloyd but his head was still mostly facing down. Then throwing caution to the wind Lloyd jumped into a hug with the fiery ninja. "I missed you so much." He said as he wrapped his arms tightly around Kai's neck. He could feel the brunette tense and stand completely still, not even breathing. Lloyd felt hurt with the lack of warmth that usually radiated off his elemental teacher, but this was for Kai and Lloyd would do everything in his power to help him.  
  
Kai's eyes went wide at the unexpected contact, Lloyd was... hugging him.  
  
'Is he just doing this to get my guard down? No, he actually cares? He's hugging me so that must mean he cares right?'  
  
Kai willed his muscles to relax and slowly and hesitantly lifted one of his hands to wrap around the shorter boys waist, then his second hand joined in. Kai was hugging back. "I... I missed you too." He eventually replied what feeling absolutely flabbergasted at the pure LOVE he was getting. It wasn't cold and fake, it was real.  
  
\-----LINE BREAK(MEMORY)------  
  
The room was cold and so was Kai. He curled up in the thin blanket he was given, the lumpy mattress wasn't helping him sleep either. He was shivering in the corner as he looked down at his hands, other than the ugly black swirls and normal pale of his fingers there was nothing different. Kai pulled the blanket closer to his body and squeezed himself further into the corner as if it would protect him from the cold. "Come o-on, you c-can do i-it." He said to himself as he exposed his hand and faced his palm upwards. He closed his eyes and focused on the fire inside of himself to create a flame. The middle of his palm flickered to life for a split second before it disappeared again. Kai tried some more before realising it wasn't working. He let out a loud whine as the cold wall caused pain in his back. He couldn't fell anything below the waist, it was just too cold, too numb. If he didn't die because of blood loss then there was a good chance he'd die of hypothermia.  
  
The door swung open, letting someone stomp in with clear rage written across his face. Kai tried to make himself invisible by shrinking more into the corner but the man spotted him and reached out to grab his arm. He was yanked to the ground and his blanket was pulled off and thrown across the room. Kai shuddered when his body made contact with the freezing floor but when he tried getting up he was pushed back down forcefully with a foot to the back. His face collided with the floor which left him slightly dizzy. "What did you tell her about me?" The man's voice was loud but not on the level of shouting yet, Kai turned his head to look up and although the man was angry he still seemed to wear a smile on his face. Though the smile looked fake, almost like it was drawn on. "What did you say to her?" He asked again an leaned down to Kai. "I-I didn't say anything." Kai stuttered out as he began to curl into a ball. The man stood up straight now and laughed, a hysterical, sinister, twisted laugh. "Now your lying." He laughed some more. "No! I'm sorry I'm not lyi-" Kai was cut off as he was picked up by his neck and pushed up against the wall. "Why are you lying?" He asks, the smile never leaving his face. "I'm not, I promise I'm not." Kai squeaked out while clawing at the hands for them to loosen. "Please, I'm sorry." He tried once more.  
  
The man let go and Kai dropped to the ground and layed in a heap. "No. No your not." The man answered in a calm, quiet voice. He took a few steps back, covered his ears and started sreaming at Kai. "WHY ARE YOU LYING!" Kai shreaked back in fear and he could feel his eyes start burning. "I'm not lying!" He defended. Kai hoped that he wasn't going to hurt him, it's the first time he'd ever seen the man like this. "Dont lie to me Kai." His name hung in the air like a rotten smell. The silence that fell between them was unwanted and pushed down on Kai like a bag of bricks.  
  
"I'm sorry" Kai spoke up and put his head down. The man looked at him with an unreadable expression then turned around and left. "You'll be punished tomorrow."  
  
\------LINE BREAK-----  
  
Lloyd pulled away and looked Kai in the eye. He didn't say anything but rather let his eyes do the talking. The vibrant green was slightly lighter than Cole's and held a lot more emotion, this time they were glossy with sadness and unspilt tears. The held worry for a friend and a brother, and they were confused with all that was happening. Kai looked up into his eyes and wanted to explain everything, to do what he thought about on his way here. But now when he has the chance, his afraid.  
  
His afraid.  
  
"I'm gonna let Jay in now okay." Lloyd turned around to the door and looked back at Kai with a small, genuine smile on his face. Kai looked blankly at his mouth then back up at his innocent emerald eyes. Lloyd turned the handle and opened the door to leave, through the tiny opening Kai could see a vibrant blue show through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Jay, I wonder what memory he would trigger. I'm thinking of going into more depth with the girl but nothing major.


	6. Troubled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai's talk with Jay doesn't go as expected. Maybe a pushy Jay and a scared Kai don't mix after all

Kai stood motionless in the room, still in the same spot Lloyd had hugged him in, the thought still lingered in his mind. The thought of a chance, no matter how small, that he might actually have a normal life again. Lloyd showed him love, a kindness he hadn't felt in over two months. Two months of living in that prison, two months of stupid torture, two months of having to deal with a crazy psychopath in a cold gray room where everyday you have to worry about whether you were going to be beaten or used as a muse for whatever game he came up with. It was tiring and frustrating to Kai, the thought of never being able to see his family again drove him mad. It felt dumb to be worrying over the past, he was safe now, in his brothers care. He didn't have to worry about the cold at night, he didn't have to worry about loosing too much blood and he didn't have to worry about them finding his family. But he did still worry about her.  
Jay came in a few moments after Lloyd's green gi had vanished from the room, the lack of warmth that came from his love went with him. Lloyd was probably explaining what had happened during their conversation, that must have caused the delay. Jay came in as timid as Lloyd but the boy in blue still managed to put a semi-warm smile on his face. Unlike the others, Jay had stayed in his pajamas which still had traced of Kai's blood on it. The ginger walked up to his friend with thoughts of conversation starters going through his head. "So, what ya thinking about buddy?"  
  
'Buddy? Was he really going to be that casual about this'  
  
Kai's face morphed into a small scowl that had Jay shrink back slightly.  
  
'Relax Kai. His only trying to be friendly'  
  
He relaxed his face into a much calmer expression and looked at Jay, the ginger was looking at him and then his gi and looked back up to his neck. "Whats that on your neck?"  
  
'Oh no! Lloyd must have pushed it down'  
  
Kai's hand quickly bolted up and pulled the material back into place, trying his best to make it seem as though it was nothing important. "Its nothing." He said while turning away. He didn't want them to find out about his 'price tag' just yet. "Are those scars from what they did to you?" Kai's back was now turned to him but that didn't hide the surprise and fear that made his body tense up at the question.  
  
'Why is he asking this? I dont want to talk about what they did to me'  
  
Jay took a step closer, leaning to the side to catch a glimpse of the brunettes face. "What happened?" No reply came to the boys question. "Can I have a look, maybe I can help."  
  
'You can't help me Jay, give me a chance to adjust'  
  
Jay took another step forward as he reached out his hand to the red of the gi. Kai turned around to face Jay and explain, only to be met with the betraying hand of the blue ninja. Jay froze and left his hand in mid-air and Kai stared wide-eyed at it. Kai turned his brown eyes to Jay's and let anger fill them. Jay's brows rose as he began mumbling apologies to the brother in red, this only seemed to anger Kai even more. Jay started babbling but Kai easily drowned that out until the blue-clad boy swung one of his arms in the direction of Kai. Thanks to his reflexes though, he was able to dodge it but it brought back an all too familiar memory. Kai hurried back as he kept staring at Jay, the ginger however didn't seem to take notice of his friends distress and instead launched into a speech about shying away from help. Jay stopped mid-sentence as he turned his head to where Kai used to be standing, the blue orbs searched the area and finally landed on the corner the brother had taken shelter in. "Kai, don't move away." Jay began walking towards his brother, though not ment to look threatening, it did to Kai. Jay's bold strides and unsure smile made Kai feel uneasy and unsafe.  
Unsafe...  
  
'Wasn't being with the team supposed to make me feel safe? Why is Jay doing this, doesn't he see I don't want him coming near?'  
  
"J-Jay please s-stop." Kai held out both his hands in an attempt to signal him to stop coming closer but that failed. "Come on Kai, I'm only trying to help. I can't help if you won't let me in." Jay said as he continued taking smaller steps forward. He was really close to Kai now, too close for comfort in his eyes. "I'm fine, I don't need h-help." Kai tried to reason with the boy.  
"Don't lie."  
  
Then something in Kai snapped.  
  
'Don't lie'  
'Don't lie!'  
'DON'T LIE!'  
  
Kai lit his hand up in flames and aimed at Jay. Before the ginger even had time to react to his friends sudden frantic breathing, he was shot in the chest with flames. Jay let out a loud scream which everyone in the Bounty would be able to hear. Lloyd came bursting into the room, looking frantically around for where the sound had come from. He saw Jay lying on the floor, half his pajamas burnt off with Kai shivering in the corner.  
  
"Dont lie, I'm sorry. Dont lie, don't lie, don't lie." Kai kept repeating as he looked down to Jay's body. The boy was currently trying the remove his top before the burning could reach his skin but he had already gotten burns across his left shoulder and around the side of his neck. "Get it off, get it off, get it off!" Jay panicked when one of the buttons got stuck. Lloyd knealed down beside his brother and ripped the shirt off to see the bright red burn mark's that now decorated his upper body. He rushed to one of the cupboards and retrieved a cloth and the moving over to the small fridge in the back he pulled out some ice. Running back over to Jay, Lloyd quickly eased the ice wrap on the biggest burn which was on the crook of his neck. Against Jay's pale skin the burns looked really bad so to Kai it was as if he had fatally injured his best friend. He could only look in horror as Jay flinched at the slightest touch on one of his injuries. Tears began to well up in his eyes, making his vision blurry and his body started getting numb.  
  
Both Cole and Zane came running into the room now, they too were searching the room for signs of distress. Their eyes landed on the corner were Jay was being calmed by Lloyd who was trying to make his burns hurt less, he didn't know what else to do. Zane rushed over to the pair and help Lloyd move him over to the vacant table on the middle of the room before he began to address the situation. Cole however did something different.  
  
In the corner, what Cole saw made his heart shatter. His face and body went slack as he processed the picture before him. Sitting in the corner with his knees pulled to his chest was Kai. The brunettes face was buried between his knees and chest and he was shivering. From where Cole was standing he could hear Kai muttering things to himself, he also heard sobs. Sobs? From Kai? This was hard to believe but before the raven could start a new train of thought, he would have to help his brother first. He steadily walked over to the balled up Kai, it was hard seeing his brother like this.  
He crouched down to Kai's level before speaking up, "Kai, how are you feeling?" Kai didn't answer but instead turned away even more. It was clear he wasn't in the mood for any company but Cole had to sort this out now before it escalated to something worse. "Kai, come on, look at me." Cole begged as his hand hovered over Kai's arm. The red ninja still didn't look up so Cole did the only thing he thought would work.  
  
"Lěngjìng xiàlái, méiyǒu shé me shì cuò de." Cole said in a calm and soft voice. Kai's head perked up at this and he eyed Cole with confusion.  
"Zhǐshì gēn wǒ shuōhuà hǎo ma?" Kai opened his mouth only for no words to come out, he was completely stunned. He hadn't heard someone speak in his mother tongue since him and Nya had gotten into an argument months ago. It felt good and it brought back a feeling of home. "Hǎo." Kai replied once he had gotten over his shock and nodded his head. Cole smiled at Kai and lifted up his hand to take, Kai looked at it then back at Cole. He reached up his own gloved hand slowly and let Cole help him to his feet.  
  
By now Jay was all patched up by Zane and Lloyd and the three waited for black and red to finish what they were doing. Cole gave each of them reassuring looks before they all nodded in understanding and left the two alone in the grey room again. Kai was looking down at his feet, no doubt feeling guilty for hurting Jay. Cole was standing in front of him, being sure to give Kai time to think this over.  
"Where did you learn to say that?" Kai spoke up once he turned his head to face Cole. The raven smiled at him and replied. "My mission was to help this small village defend themselves against serpentine attacks. I learnt a bit of the language while I was there." Kai then nodded his head, not knowing what to say next. Luckily he didn't have to say anything because Cole spoke. "Do you wanna tell me what happened between you and Jay?" Kai started toying with the gloves on his hand as he thought about an answer to give.  
  
'What would I say to that? His words reminded me of HIM. I couldn't help it, I'm sorry'  
  
Kai turned towards Cole and looked into his forest green eyes, his sad ones reflecting back at him. "I-I couldn't control it. T-t-they hurt me Cole a-and Jay w-wouldn't stop c-coming closer and-and..." Kai stopped talking looked away. He didn't want to see how Cole would react, he didn't want to feel this way anymore. That annoying pain in your chest that tells you somethings wrong but you don't know what it is exactly, you just know it's there. And it won't stop bothering you, it creeps up on you at the worst possible moments and forces you to feel. Whether it be pain, guilt or anger. Neither were appealing to Kai at the moment so he tried to distract himself with other thoughts, like when Nya was coming back.  
Cole used his finger to turn Kai's chin so that they were again face-to-face. Cole was slightly shorter than Kai, but only by an inch, the raven gave him an expressionless look which Kai had a hard time making out. "Its okay. I'm sure Jay's perfectly fine. You freaked out and that's okay, I understand. But you've gotta talk about it okay? Promise me that." Cole gave a stern look directed at the master of fire. Kai shuddered a little but replied anyway. "I promise." With that, Cole smiled once again at Kai. "Good, then we can all go to bed, I'm exhausted." Cole said while turning away towards the door. Kai followed him silently back to their shared room where they found Lloyd and Jay fast asleep with Zane reading a book. The nindroid looked up at his two brothers as he gave a small smile and nod to Kai.  
On his bed he found his usual red striped pajamas, he grabbed them and went to the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water calmed him, he could't remember the last time he had a warm shower. When he emerged from the steam filled room, all of his brothers had already drifted off to sleep. Kai took his place on the top bunk above Cole and layed in the warm bed, enjoying the comfort it brought. He soon felt his eyelids dropping as they became heavier with each passing second. Soon he too had joined his brothers in blissful slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This didn't turn out the way I expected but I'm happy with it nonetheless. I am a bit sad that I wasn't able to put a memory in here but next chapter I plan to make up for it. :)
> 
> Translations:
> 
> Lěngjìng xiàlái, méiyǒu shé me shì cuò de.- Calm down, nothing is wrong.
> 
> Zhǐshì gēn wǒ shuōhuà hǎo ma?- Just talk to me okay? 
> 
> Hǎo- okay. 
> 
> Sorry if any of those are wrong, I used Google translate in Chinese(simplified)


	7. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'll get you back, I promise I won't forget you.

In his hand was a flower, but any flower, a white rose. It stood for many things but to him it was boldness, subtlety, and kindness. Beauty was something every rose had but this one didn't. Not that the plant was not beautiful, it was a precious gem to be kept safe from breaking and held flawless looks. The flower itself, however, was dying from the inside out. In his hand he watched as the soft, delicate petals he once ran his finger over, withered away at his touch. The fierce thorns that protected the jewel fell off one by one. It was a tragic thing to witness, to watch in silence as such beauty died in your palms. It looked hurt as it curled up its petals, trying to ignore the pain but ultimately failing. He couldn't watch something so lovely die such a cruel death and in a moment's notice the flower was engulfed in flames. It faded into black and then to dust. The ashes blew out of his hand and fell to the floor, leaving him standing there alone. He gazed down at the tiny specks now littered across the grey floor as he contemplates where he was. Then hearing a door open, he turns his head up to the noise.  
  
Standing in front of him was the brown-haired man, but he wasn't alone. Beside him was a girl, the same girl that had helped him the first time he was hurt. She looked in pain as she trembled and her knees buckled, urging her to collapse to the unwelcoming floor. He scans her body and sees her in ripped clothing coated in blood. The thick, warm liquid dripping off her like an open tap. Her hands were once again tied tightly together, limiting her movement, her mouth was gagged with a piece of material wrapped around her face. Though none of these observations disturbed him, what he really noticed was her lack of anger, bravery or even fear. What was present on her face was defeat, she had given up, she was tired of fighting the loosing fight only to gain new scars of punishment. The broken blue eyes locks onto his lifeless brown ones. It seems that they were both defeated. A harsh and sharp tone brought his attention back.  
  
"Burn her." It spoke with authority. He peered up to the stem of the voice to see the hard, cold and emotionless state of their warden. He didn't look pleased at all but the lack of fight in the girl softened his heart. So with equal determination he replied to the man, "No." He would not hat me just for this man's petty amusement. Her eyes lit up with hope at his statement, he could tell that she was grateful for defending her but also angered at his stupidity. She knew that there was no way to disobey this man without punishment, and he wasn't in a particularly good mood today, which only made matters worse.  
  
But even though the man had a dark look in his eye, his lips curved into a smile and it looked as if he was as dandy as ever. His attention turned to the girl and then back to him before he stated, "I'll give you two ten minutes to think it over." He exited the door and left the two teens alone in cold room. The first thing he did was rush over to her side and hold her up from falling. "We have to find a way out of here." He quaked as his eyes roamed around the room. There where tiny holes on the walls and floor but the only available option was to use the door. He looked down at the trembling girl using him as support now. "Y-you know, i-if I'm g-gonna die," She paused to suck in a stained breath. "I w-want to know w-who s-stood up f-for me." Her stutter was ever present in her voice as it wavered at some points. He smiled down at her as she awkwardly maneuvered her hands to cover a large spot of blood. He gently pushed her hands away and replaced them with his own on her abdomen. "My names Kai, but I'm sorry to say that you won't be dying anytime soon. I will get us out of here." He responded. "W-well I w-wish you luck. I-if you e-ever do find-d a way out, p-please don't forget me. I-I wanna be r-remembered by at least s-someone." She mumbled the last part as if it was only meant for herself. "I can't remember you if I don't know your name." Kai explained. "M-my name's Sage." She answered meekly. They stood in peaceful silence for what felt like eternity. It wasn't an uncomfortable or awkward silence, it was calming. It gave Kai a moment to evaluate their escape plan but Sage did have a point, this would not be an easy job to accomplish. The thought alone of not getting out made him cringe and gave him a throbbing headache. After a few minutes of searching over the same blank walls he gazed down at the girl holding on to him for dear live. She seemed to sense his stare and spoke up after sighing. "You know what you have to do." She didn't look him in the eye but rather looked further down, hiding her face from his prying eyes. Her  
 stutter was gone and it sounded unnatural. "If you mean I have to burn you then no. I won't hurt someone just for his amusement, it's inhuman!" He fumed. "B-but it's the right thing t-to do or else we b-both get hurt. Rather m-me than you, I can h-heal myself r-remember." She whispered. Sage was right, she could heal herself but with her injuries it seemed unlikely that she would even have the energy for that. She barely had enough to stand on her own. But once again, she did have a point, either Sage burns by his hand or they both suffer an equally worse fate.  
  
'Your not a monster Kai, you don't hurt innocent people'  
  
As he glances at Sage's direction then maneuvers her so that she's facing him. "We don't have much time left, but... I don't wanna hurt you Sage." Kai's voice was shaky and quiet, his deep brown orbs were glossy and Sage saw her beaten and bruised face stare back at her. "Y-you won't be h-hurting me. I'd r-rather be burnt b-by you than s-stabbed by him." She responded, her eye's held comfort.  
  
A loud and violent knock on the door told them that their time was now up. The man came waltzing into the room, full of confidence and bubbling happiness. "So are you two love birds ready yet?" Kai ignored his comment and took a defensive stance in front of Sage. His palms were sweaty and his brain felt fuzzy. "I-I'll do what you want." Kai spoke softly but loud enough for him the man to hear. "Wow Kai, I'm surprised. It seems that my teachings are paying off." Kai scowled and had a threatening look directed at the smiling man. "Okay, get on with it then. I want to savour every moment of this."  
  
The world seemed to warp and all his senses suddenly became heightened. The foul rotten, mouldy smell of the room made itself apparent to his nose. The strong odor of dry and fresh blood invaded his eyes and made them sting. The room itself seemed to close down on him, making every breath harder to breath in. "I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry!" He cried out to nothing. In no time he was on his knees in the middle a white room, an agonising pain embedded itself in his chest only making the task of breathing harder.  
  
'Its your fault I'm scarred'  
  
'You did this to me'  
  
'Why? I only tried to help you'  
  
The words kept playing over and over in his head, they hurt, they wouldn't go away. Kai clutched his ears in an attempt to drown out the pain. "I'm sorry!" Tears fell from his eyes as the pain in his chest grew stronger. "I didn't mean it." They dripped off his chin and formed a small puddle below him.  
  
"Your being weak Kai. And when you get back we'll have so much fun during you punishment." The tone was dark and held slight cheerfulness between the words. It was a threat but sounded so welcoming, it drew him in. Maybe he was meant to be with the man, the pain didn't hurt that much and he was getting used to the knifes.  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
"Kai wake up! Wake up!!" Lloyd's worried voice pounded in his eardrums, waking him from his nightmare. The blonde boy was shaking Kai's shoulder and whisper-yelling in his ear. Kai bolted up from bed with tears running down his face and a horrified expression. "L-Lloyd, what h-happened?" Lloyd gazed into his eyes for a few moments before answering in shaky tone, "Y-You were crying and talking in your sleep and-and I didn't know if I should wake you or-or if you-" Kai stopped him from going and further. They stayed in silence for a little longer, enjoying the calmness and the gentle breathing of their brothers. Kai appeared to be deep in thought but the tears were still very much present on his face, shinning in the moonlight seeping in through the window. Lloyd reached his hand up and cuped his cheek before running his thumb across it. The tears vanished but Kai soon replaced them with more. The alarm clock next to their bed was flashing the time, 03:45, too early to do anything other than sleep. After taking some deep breaths, Lloyd observed Kai as a serious look took its place on his face. "Kai, whats wrong?" Kai wanted to look away but the gentleness in the boys sleepy tone and his hand held him back. "I had a bad nightmare. But I'm fine now." Kai copied Lloyd in taking deep breaths as to calm himself and his heart rate. "Are you going to tell me when you got a tattoo?" The boy inquired curiously as his green eyes caught the swirling black on his neck. Kai tensed and looked to Lloyd with pleading eyes.  
  
'Please don't make me say'  
  
Lloyd could hear the silent request being said as the brown eyes begged him to change to subject. "Will you tell me in the morning?" Lloyd then asked. Kai nodded his head in response as he resumed their silent atmosphere. Then in a quick motion, the blonde gripped the brunette in a hug. "Your never alone Kai. I know that look, I'm here if you want some company." Lloyd mumbled into the thin pajama shirt. Kai hugged back eagerly this time. "Thank you Lloyd." When they let go Lloyd uttered a huge yawn and went back to his bed. He glanced over at Kai and gave a 'I'm watching you' sign with his fingers and then feel asleep almost immediately. Kai lay awake staring up at the ceiling, lost in his own pool of thoughts. "We will get you out Sage, I promise." He whispered to himself and closed his eyes again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEAH! I got my OC Sage in, hope you like her. But I'm stumped for idea's right now


	8. Negative Thinking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two section chapter, first part goes over what Sage and the man are doing and how they react to Kai's absence.  
> The second part is the next morning on the Bounty.

'Your mine' The words were deeply being cut into her leg as she whimpered helplessly on the pristine white table. The dark red liquid gushed out of the thin lines at would scar her flesh. Noting that the person inflicting the unbearable pain had a straight face, she tried distracting her mind by pointing out unimportant details around her.  
  
'White walls. Black floor. Brown hair. Red blade'  
  
She stopped her musings as her eyes fell in the dripping metal and refused it look away. The tiny, inanimate object was taunting her, telling her that she hand no defence against its relentless sharp edge. "Stop staring at my dagger." It took a moment for the words to register in her fuzzy mind, she tilted her head slightly to get a better view of the speaker. The menacing red bore into her skull and mad her brain throb with a mild headache just thinking about what was happening in his twisted mind. He eyed her face, examining every detail before locking eyes with her again. "Why did you do it?" The question was not unexpected, though even though she had ample time to prepare a believable answer she found herself blank as the moment had come. But the real answer was obvious, he was cruel and she wanted to limit the number of people he hurt but she couldn't tell him that. He was unstable enough as it is, since Kai left he's been distant, non-caring towards his other 'toys'. "You know very well why I did it." She spat out with more venom that she had expected, her eyes were glaring at the unfazed red that memorized her. He reluctantly turned his head back down to her bleeding leg traced his fingers over the clotting cuts. She hissed in pain when his finger pressed harder into her wound. "I don't always take pleasure in hurting you." He stated, he looked lost in thought. She didn't reply or make a comment, finding herself intrigued by his sudden weakness. "He was my..." He looked up at the wall as he struggled to find the right words to explain. She couldn't help but feel the tiniest speck of pity for him, he was like a lost puppy with no one to go to. "He was my muse and I, his artist." Typical of him to always refer to his artistic side. His hands mindlessly played with to still wet blade, he was getting her blood all over his fingers. It was revolting to say the least, it made the pit of hatred she had for this man burn even brighter. "Do you think he hates me." Her reply came quickly as it skipped past her filter from her brain to her mouth. "Of cause he hates you, your an unstable monster!" Although she regretted being so harsh to the man at a time he was weak, she didn't let her anger waver. This man had done terrible things to so many people and she had been around to witness it all. A breathy laugh came from his mouth as he looked towards her, he had that constant smile on his face but the sadness in his eyes was undeniable. "Sage, do you hate me?" The smile vanished from his face an a hopeful look replaced it. In his eyes she could see his fear, a fear of being rejected by everyone. Sure this man hurt people for the fun of it but he was also just a person. He was a person that, like any other, walks down the wrong path and ends up making a lot of mistakes that even he does not fully understand. His prisoners were probably the closest things he had a relationship with another human being. She reminded herself of the question, she still needed to answer.  
She should say Yes, it's the only reasonable answer after all. He was a torturer and he shouldn't be giving mercy. But 'hate' was not a word Sage liked to use, she felt that no one deserved to be hated in their life, even this cruel and evil man.  
  
The dip of his head brought her attention back to the present, it seemed as though her lack of answer caused him to jump to conclusions. Something that highly annoyed her, making her rethink the answer. "No, I don't hate you. I have a strong dislike for you, but no hate." She glared in his direction before moving her hand over to the wound on her leg. "You need to learn better people skills." She stated as her hand began to glow with the mysterious ora inside of her. She painfully traced each letter with her finger, scooping up the blood that had gathered. Once she was done the scar was barely noticeable but you could still make out the change of skin if you looked closely.  
  
Then out of nowhere this uncertain feeling hit her, her stomach twisted into a knot and her had began shaking slightly. In a sudden flash, a hand gripped her wrist tightly and dragged her off the table. Her body fell limply to the hard ground as she had lost her balance from the surprise attack. Laughter filled the rancid air that she was forced the inhale, peeking up at the man, she saw him almost falling over with hysterical laughter. If she looked closer then she could see the shimmering of light bouncing off the clear liquid on his face. Keeping her eyes on the man, Sage backed up under the table to make herself as unnoticeable as possible. He was going through one of his mood swings again and she did not want to be on the receiving end of those. He soon ceased all laughter after whatever joke her heard died out, his eyes glanced under the table where a small figure sat balled up.  
"'In the fell clutch of circumstance  
I have not winced nor cried aloud  
Under the bludgeonings of chance  
My head is bloody but unbound'"  
His words were spoken softly and gently, something rarely seen coming from him. She recognized the stanza from a poem he had read to her before. It spoke of being brave under difficult circumstances, of how life can try all it wants to bring you down and all you have to do is be strong enough to fight it. Easier said than done. His eyes dropped to the ground as he stared at his feet and let the silent tears drop on his shoes. "See you later." He whispered a little more stained than he had hoped.  
  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
  
The small rays of sunlight seeping through the blinds woke Kai up almost instantly. The foreign method of waking up was confusing but not disliked. It felt comforting to wake up nicely for once. Looking down at himself he realised that he would have to cover up before the others woke up too, he didn't want them making up their own theories. Silently jumping down from the top bunk, Kai picked up last night's gi he had worn and vanished into the bathroom. Thoughts of last night plagued his mind as he went through scenarios of how each brother would react. Lloyd and Cole had both been very understanding, Zane seemed to care for his well being, even though saying that he was 'mentally unstable' might have been a step too far. Then there was Jay, Kai didn't want anything to do with Jay now. The ginger was far too pushy and would ask too many questions regarding topics he was uncomfortable with.  
  
After pulling the last glove over his hand Kai moved over to the basin cupboard. He pulled out a pair of large scissors and eyed his head blankly. He finger-combed most of his hair to the back before he began cutting as straight and possible. He didn't take away much, just enough so that it could be the same as when he had left. Thoughts of the past made him pause his movement's and gaze down at fallen pieces of hair on the floor. He was no longer living in the past, he couldn't let it control him, he would NOT be used like that again. Once Kai was happy with the new length he reached down again an pulled out a bottle of hair gel.  
  
'They still kept it'  
  
The tiny thought made him smile as he began spiking up his hair as he did so long ago. It didn't take much longer for him to finish his hair, brush his teeth and wash his face. He felt fresh and ready for the day and maybe he would be able to handle the stress that came with it. While looking over himself one more time he did his best to soak in the moment. It felt like forever since he had last felt this way, the thought was relieving yet also pitiful. He scowled at himself in the mirror.  
  
'Why are you so weak, it's almost too sad to watch'  
  
His own thoughts were even against him and he debated whether to live up to the promise he had made Lloyd a few hours ago. As he gave a loud sigh he could hear faint movement in the next room.  
  
'Someone must be waking up'  
  
He exited the bathroom and found Cole and Zane wide awake. "Good morning brother." Zane greeted in a calm, low voice, he was careful not to wake the remaining two. "I will be making breakfast this morning." He added after and began walking out to the kitchen. Cole was still in his pajamas as he raised his sleepy eyes to the boy dressed in red. "Mornin', how'd you sleep?" Cole asked once he motioned for Kai to follow him out of the room. "I slept fine." Kai lied through his teeth as he followed the raven haired boy. "Your getting good at lying. That was almost believable. Almost." Cole remarked as they entered the training room.  
  
'What are we doing here?'  
  
Cole walked through an arch to the side of the room and emerged a few minutes later dressed in his own black gi. "You still haven't truthfully answered my question." Cole reminded after walking towards Kai and folding his arms over his chest. Kai felt slightly threatened and was torn between angrily brushing him off or being honest. He was leaning more to anger for whatever reason. "Why are we here." He decided to change the subject rather than risk an unwanted argument. Come raised an eyebrow at him. "Its a simple question Kai."  
"And so is mine." He retorted with a straight face. He could see the growing agitation on Cole's face as he tried to hold his temper. "Fine." Cole turned away like a stubborn child who couldn't get any sweets, he went over to a weapons rack and pulled off two katana's, throwing the one towards Kai. The brunette caught it easily and looked it over. He could see his reflection in the blade, it had been so long since he held an actual weapon in his hand. He would be lying once again if he said he wasn't a little bit intimidated by the shining metal. The hilt of the blade was decorated with flowing patterens in red and gold, it was elegant and beautiful if you could appreciate good craftsmanship like Kai did. He looked back up at Cole and eyed him with curiosity, his eyes asking a silent question.  
'What are we doing now?'  
Cole looked over his own katana then back at Kai. "We're going to duel, winner gets the answer to a question of his choice. Sound fair?" The brunette hesitated but nodded his head in agreement. Cole moved to stand opposite him and held his sword out in front of himself. Kai mimicked his actions and with a slight nod of Cole's head, they circled each other.  
  
'Do I attack first? Do I wait for him?'  
  
Kai was confused at this point, it was as if he had forgotten all his training. He was vulnerable, he didn't even remember Cole's tell-sign for when he attacked. As if sensing his confusion, Cole lowered his blade and looked up at Kai. "What's wrong?" He was so tired of that stupid question.  
  
'How would you know if something was wrong? What if it's something good that's just bothering you?'  
  
"Nothing's wrong Cole." The master of fire spat out the name as if it was the most disgusting thing in the world. The raven cringed at the venomous way his name was said. Kai dropped his blade to the ground and walked out without uttering another word. The room was left with the cold and bad vibes Kai had radiated off, Cole didn't want to be on here anymore. He took the two weapons back to their respective racks and too walked out of the room.  
  
\--------------------------------------------------  
  
'What is wrong with me? I'm such an idiot! STUPID! Why'd you have to go and push Cole away too?'  
Kai had taken shelter in the lower part of the Bounty were no one normally went. He felt sick, confused and above all, dumb. He needed something to take his mind off of this, why was it bothering him anyway?  
  
'Its not like a need him, it was a simple misunderstanding, there's no reason why we can't work this out. But what if he won't listen. And this is only giving them proof that I am mentally unstable. But I'm not, or am I? No I'm not.'  
  
Kai let out a frustrated groan, he rested his head against the cool wood of the wall. The room was mostly empty, aside from the two punching bags in the corner and the large couch against the opposite wall.  
  
'Why am I feeling like this?'  
  
Kai let out a tired sigh and sunk towards the floor, resting his back against the wood for support. He still had to tell Lloyd and now he had to apologise to Cole as well, then there was the Jay problem. The day was still young and he already didn't want to continue, his thoughts took over.  
  
'At least back by them they didn't pressure me'  
  
Kai whipped his head up, why was he thinking this? He didn't want to go back, that's the whole reason he ran away.  
  
'But you know it's true, it wasn't so bad back there'  
  
"But it was, they hurt me and they hurt her." He didn't care that he was speak out loud to the subconscious voice in his mind, he was having an internal debate with himself. Was he really that far down that some part of him actually wanted to go back to that hell.  
  
'You know that her death will be all your fault. And once they find the team then their blood will be on your hands too'  
  
It was true, HE ran away, HE would lead them to the team. If he hadn't used her to run away, she would still be safe. He pushed Zane away when he could have helped, he didn't want to tell Lloyd the truth and he hurt Jay. He was turning into them and that's the last thing he wanted. But what if this is all just another one of his twisted games to make Kai believe that he's free only to be pulled back down. The brunette shook his head to clear the frustrating thoughts from his mind.  
  
This was going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote I used was from my favourite poem: Invictus by William Ernest Henley


	9. Shane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We go a little deeper into the actions of the man that hurt Kai
> 
> Warning: graphic torture ahead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses on my OC, the man that tortured Kai, this one also has some important points for the future of the story

Numb, dull, empty. Those are a few of the words he would use to describe himself right now. He felt useless, another word, he found himself wandering the empty corridors of his prison. The wall matched his mood in a way, empty, emotionless. He'd need to remember to come down here again and paint these horrid walls. His footsteps echoed off the flat surfaces and bounced back to him, annoying him to no end. He hated reoccurring sounds, that and being lied to. That's maybe the reason why Sage was still alive, she always told the truth even though on some occasions she had gotten punished for it. Speaking of punishment, he was late for his appointment with his third favourite toy.  
  
'What was his name again? James? No, it was Jeremy'  
  
Jeremy was his name, a sweet little boy. He was only sixteen years old, a year younger than Kai. A slight shake of his head sent brown strands of hair falling over his eyes.  
  
'I need to stop comparing them to him. His gone and I need to accept that'  
  
He knew he had to but he didn't want to. Kai was special, in his own timid yet feisty way. He was going to miss his dirt brown hair and his milk chocolate eyes and his childlike personality when he had gotten mad at him. The infuriating footsteps would soon come to an end as Jeremy's green door came into view. He gripped his hands a little tighter around the flat object, today was the first day that he would see the boy with his tattoos.  
  
He wore a calm, straight face, not even a hint of a smile showing through. The chipped wood of the old door bothered him, he wondered how they even got there. He had certainly not done that. Or maybe he had during one of his episodes. Never mind, it didn't matter.  
  
He knocked on the door twice before pushing it open, he still had his manners even though he kept an underground prison. The room was lit up by a small lamp on the far left corner, illuminating the rest of the few objects in the room. Against the right wall was a single bed with a small table next to it. Against the walls were large posters of a few of his favorite peoms, he thought that Jeremy might appreciate the slight decor in his bland room. Unlike the other cells, Jeremy's was painted a dark blue instead of the usual grey. The floors had large puddles of old blood in random spots, Jeremy was one of the people he often got particularly messy with, that was why his room was slightly more comfortable than the rest. After surveying the room his eyes rested of the figure sitting hunched over on his bed. He stepped into the room and closed the door softly behind himself. The short mess of dark brown hair fell over most of his face and the rest sat at the nape of his neck, his eyes were cast down and his hands rested in his lap. His skin was pale from lack of sunlight and he wore a white t-shirt with a black pants but was barefoot. He held the flat pad firmly in his hands as he walked over to stand in front of the boy. "Jeremy?" He asked in a cold emotionless voice. The boy looked up at him, he tilted his head upwards and he could already see that the boy had been crying. He must have known.  
  
Jeremy was one of his favourite and most unique prisoners. The boy had bright, vibrant green eyes that mesmerized him every time he looked at them. He had a fascination with the eye colour. Another thing that made Jeremy in his favorite was because he had done the most permanent damage to the boy. He hadn't cut him, broken his arm or even mentally scarred him, what he had done was make him a mute. First he had cut the sides of his face, similar to what he did to Kai, then he had stitched it all closed and taught the boy sign language. Sometimes if he was too rough then one of the stitches would snap and blood would drip down, it was a beautiful picture just waiting to be drawn. The skin around his face was swollen and no doubt still hurt, he had made sure that it would never properly heal, thus extending the boys suffering. "Does your mouth hurt?" He got a small nod as an answer.  
  
His gaze found their way to where Jeremy's hands were folded in his lap, disappointment showed on his features as he scanned over the ink that now decorated the young boys wrists. But that was the problem, it was only his wrists, not the back or even the arm. Though intricately decorated, it only meant that he was of low value. "Is it only your wrists?" He received another small nod in response. He sighed as he continued looking down at the small tattoo, Jeremy lifted his head up in fear and worry. He dared to move his hands and signed something to the older man sitting in front of him.  
  
'What does this mean?'  
  
"It means that you are worth very little Jeremy." He replied blandly, no sorrow, regret or even pity in his voice. He turned his attention back down to the smaller, more delicate and fragile hands and moved them so that they were crossed over each other, showing most parts of the tattoo. He reached over to the pad he had brought with him and found a pencil laying next to it. Jeremy kept still when he realised that his hands were going to be sketched.  
  
The soft and light stokes of the pencil brought peace to his mind. It took the raging thoughts of Kai away and replaced them with methods of shading and colour. On the pad he drew the outline of the wrists and fingers, then proceeded to add the small details that made up the hand such as the creases over the knuckles and around the wrist. The tattoo was the last thing he added, making the lines darker to contrast his portrayal of Jeremy's pale skin. Once he had finished, he signed his name at the bottom of the page in the right corner, something he never did. Jeremy noticed this and raised a questioning eyebrow at the man. "Do they still hurt?" The man asked, gesturing towards the red outlined ink. Jeremy nodded. That's all he seemed to be doing today. The man lifted the boys wrist gently, careful not to touch the tattoo, and brought it forward a little. He pulled out one of his daggers and placed the sharp blade on the soft skin. The metal reflected the light onto the boys face as he struggled slightly to loosen the grip. The sharp edge dragged across his wrist in a slow manner and cut through a small blue vain that was visible through the skin. Silent tears ran from the boys eye's, even after all the things he'd done, the boy still never got over the pain. He was weak but willed himself to be strong, it was an admirable trait. He cut through the middle of the tattoo horizontally and then turned it over to do the same to the bottom part. Once one wrist was done he looked up at the pain filled face of the boy, he couldn't call out to stop which was a good thing, the last thing he needed was another whimpering weakling. He let Jeremy's hand drop back down onto his lap and took the other hand carefully and did the same to that wrist. Jeremy could feel himself bleeding out, if he didn't get his injuries bandaged up then he would surely die from blood loss, he was too young to die. After he was satisfied with the damage he had done, he took the boys arm and pulled him up. He guided Jeremy to the middle of the back wall, in between the two posters of peoms.  
  
"'We are not now that strength which in old days  
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;  
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will  
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'"  
  
His voice had a grim tone to it, and he didn't break eye-contact with the scared boy. Jeremy was shivering on the spot, fumbling with his fingers as he tried to sign something. He tried protesting but in only came out muffled by the stitches. "I've always liked you Jeremy." He leaned in and stopped at the boys ear. Jeremy stiffened and didn't move a muscle because of the close proximity. "Your always so... obedient." He whispered softly and only sent more shivers up the boys spin. "You were one of my favourites." The words came out cold compared to the hot breath that coated his ear. "But now I'm bored with you. Since your so worthless, there's really no point in you being here." Jeremy's face paled and he had to hold onto the wall to stop him from collapsing to the floor. He moved his head away from the terrified boy and reached for his dagger again. He held it up for the boy to see his reflection on the shinning metal, he couldn't see much because it was still coated in blood from a few minutes ago. "Your strong Jeremy." He locked his empty red eyes with the boys emotion-filled green ones. The man moved the dagger to the farthest side of his face, over the stitches, and pressed down. He kept moving the knife at a steady pace and one by one the small strings holding his mouth shut each snapped. Jeremy was crying with out shame now, tears running down his face in waves only to drip down his chin, he was desperately pressing onto the wall as if it would save him. Now that most of his mouth was open, his small screams of pain were audible. Once the task was done, blood dripped from his newly open wounds. The watery mixture of blood and tears dripped from his face, staining his once white shirt.  
  
The man lifted up both his hands, wrapped them around the recovering boy and pressed down. The vibrant green eyes went wide with shock and left his now open mouth agape. While using the wall for support, he slowly lifted the shorter boy up antil his feet were dangling beneath him. Jeremy's smaller hands gripped the mans much larger ones in an attempt to get them away, blood still poured out of the slits in his wrist. The process was ment to be slow, he wouldn't put all his strength into it at once, he wanted Jeremy to suffer a agonising death. "Nobody knows my name Jeremy. It's tradition for me to tell them just before they die." Jeremy ignored his voice, more focused on getting air to his lungs. His legs kicked at the older man's body and his fingers desperately tried prying the larger ones away from his neck. The man pressed a little harder, his plan entering its final stage. "Does dying hurt?" He asked another question to the suffocating boy. He didn't answer, too busy using what little strength he had to break free. Jeremy's pale face was now changing colour and his struggles slowly became weaker as each second ticked by. Jeremy's body soon started becoming limp as his eyes struggled to stay open. Satisfaction came to the twisted man's mind as he pressed on his hardest against to the soft tissue of the boys neck. "My names Shane." He whispered softly to the dying boy. Once Jeremy was completely still, he loosened his grip and let the shorter boy fall limply to the floor in a pile of skinny bones. He crouched down and turned the boys face so that he could see it. His mouth area was red with blood and looked horrific thanks to the stitches that were still woven between his skin. His neck was slightly swollen and his skin never looked more colourless. Shane looked down at his hands and saw that they had some of Jeremy's blood still on them, he rubbed his hands together and played with the bright liquid. "Look on the bright side Jeremy, now you won't be hurt anymore." His voice was barely above a whisper. Shane sat on the cold dark floor as his shadow covered the boys body, bathing him in darkness. He didn't move, he didn't look at the blood or the disregard sketch-pad or even the dripping dagger that now lay next to him. He didn't look anywhere, he only thought.  
  
'I'll get you back'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave him name! I could NOT keep calling him 'he' or 'the man'
> 
> The poem I used was  
> Ulysses: BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
> 
> This entire chapter I couldn't stop thinking about Jeremy from FNAF


	10. Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as the Chapter title say, a lot of important things are revealed as Kai shows the team something, but Shane shows a little something as well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a nightmare to write, trying to get my vision into words is hard! But I am happy with how it turned out and I finally got my idea into this chapter, it's my tenth one so it's really special to me.   
> Warning; Torture ahead  
> I was listening to Adele's album 25 while doing this chapter and I think the song 'Remedy' really goes well with it if you wanna set the mood while reading.

The soft warmth of the sun’s rays drew Kai from his overwhelming thoughts, he was still laying against the wooden wall but he was much calmer by now. The blinding light distracted him for a while and he aimlessly stared straight ahead. His fingertips were tingling and his butt hurt from sitting of the uncomfortably hard floor for so long. He closed his eyes and focused on the silence, well not really, he concentrated more on the sounds that filled the silence. Upstairs he could hear the frequent creaking of the floorboards suggesting that Jay and Lloyd were now up. He could also hear muffled conversions, one further than the other, most likely Zane in the kitchen. Other than the noises on the Bounty, it was quiet, peaceful even. The serene feeling that flouted just out of reach, sure it was peaceful but there were too many matters that concerned the ninja for them to fully relax. Kai had just come back and that was a great thing but brought more questions than answers. Letting out a quiet sigh, the boy in red and black stood unsteadily as he got his thoughts straight. However little he wanted to join his team, he needed to reassure them that he was okay _If they even cared._

While climbing the steps, Kai traced a finger along the railing, allowing his mind to forget about the memories, forget about the problems and worries and just for a few seconds, recline into the comfort that being with family brought him. The moment didn't last for very long but it helped ease his mind even if it was only a little. Making his way down the corridor that led to the kitchen Kai focused on his breathing and thoughts, making sure that his mind was clear for any questions that they might ask. Walking into the dinning room Kai saw Lloyd and Cole sitting at the table chatting away, Jay was in the kitchen with Zane also chatting away.

_Mmm they all seem to travel in pair's_

  
Kai walked over to the table where he sat next to Cole, Lloyd looked over to him and smiled but Kai just looked at him before turning his eyes down to his folded hands. Zane and Jay joined them soon, the nindroid brought out plates with their breakfast with the help of Jay. After Zane set his plate In front of him, Kai looked over his food. Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and a sausage, the eggs head small pieces of green peppers in them and the bacon looked crispy. But Kai didn’t feel like eating, whenever he ate with _them_ then he would be forced to eat in front of Jeremy and they knew that the boy wasn’t able to eat. _I hope he’s okay, he was supposed to be getting his tattoo soon._ Kai poked his food, moving it around on his plate while the others ate and talked. He didn’t look up or try to listen to what they were saying, he was just lost in thought, he felt empty. “Hey aren't you gonna eat?” Lloyd asked while looking up from his own meal. In response Kai picked up a piece of egg and reluctantly stuffed it in his mouth, after it went down he looked up a Lloyd for approval. The boy looked offended but nodded anyway and went back to eating. After the meal was done, Kai had only touched his eggs and sausage, Zane took their plates back to the kitchen to be washed up. Lloyd moved over to sit next to Kai, the red ninja looked hesitantly up at Lloyd, “Hey, you ready to talk about it yet?” Realising that he still had a promise to keep, Kai gazed over his gloved hands and let out a silent shudder. “Yeah.” He softly breathed out and looked up at the team. “Can you get them to come to the TV room?” Kai requested as he turned to Lloyd again. The blonde smiled and nodded his head, it was meant to be reassuring but it made Kai’s stomach churn and he suddenly felt sick. “Hey guys, come to the TV room. Kai has something to tell us.” Lloyd called over to team from across the table. _I don’t want to do this._ Kai shut his eyes as he tried blocking out the cruel memories that started resurfacing.   
They quietly made their way to the other room, the silence was bothering Kai more that he’d like it to. _He_ always spoke when they were going somewhere. Each of them took their seats on the couches, waiting for Kai to address them. Kai sat the furthest away as he started tugging at his gloves. _Stupid, you shouldn’t have told Lloyd anything in the first place, you shouldn’t have been so weak and had that horrible, scary, nightmare..._   
Kai gazed down as his hands again, mind blank but filled with so much. Cautious yet safe, scared yet brave. Found yet so **lost**. Sighing, Kai planned out his words. “You know that the group I went undercover in was a-a... human trafficking gang.” He swallowed as he felt his breathing speed up.

  
_“We found a new toy for you boss” Distant voices echoing in his head. His pounding and hurting head. “Really, who is he?” another voice to aid in his painfully growing headache. “His a ninja, thought he could come and spy on us.” Laughter, cruel, scary laughter. “Well to bad he won’t be reporting back.” His body was numb and the darkness kept getting darker, he was fading. ‘Is this how I die?’_

  
“T-they had their own way of pricing and identifying their prisoners. Jay and Lloyd saw it already.” He continued painfully. “I... I was worth a lot to them.” Kai had to bite his cheek to distract himself.

_“Tomorrow you get your tattoo Fireboy. Your worth quite a lot you know.”_   
_“This is going to hurt Boy, try not to squirm.” That sharp pain-inflicting needle digging into his skin, stabbing him over and over again. All down the spine. Across the shoulders. Coming around the neck. Around the right arm. Around the left. Covering the hands. Swirling around the fingers. Blood. There was so much blood, and ink, and pain, and needles and **blood**._

“They tattoo you.” He breathed out, left hand came around his arm and he squeezed to make the pain go away. “The more you w-worth, the bigger it is.” _Just breath, it’s over now._ “How big is your one?” Jay spoke up, causing Kai’s head to turn up to him. He bite his lip and once again tugged at the gloves covering his hand. This gi was the only thing protecting him from shame and judgment. But it was also shielding them from understanding. He fumbled with the straps of his upper half before sliding it off. He had a red undershirt on and after he carefully removed that, only the bandage from yesterday was left.   
Jays eyes widened as he saw his brother covered in these dark lines and dots, marking him. Kai didn't dare to look any of them on the eye in fear of seeing their horrified or disgusted expressions. He heard Cole's sharp intake of breath. “Well everything’s going to be okay now.” He lifted his head up at Lloyd who held out his red shirt. “As long as you keep them covered then they won’t know who you are right?” _Wrong. I was his favourite, he won’t forget me._ Kai nodded his head slowly.

  
“We're home!” Nya’s high pitched feminine voice rang out through the Bounty. Kai quickly grabbed the shirt out of Lloyds hand and just barley tied his gi together before Nya and Sensei walked into the room, looking around for them. “Kai!” she ran over to her brother and drew him into a tight hug, which Kai immediately tenses towards it. He looked to Cole and Lloyd with his large brown eyes. _Get her off._ “Hey Nya, Kai’s still sore from his trip, I don’t think you should hug him so tightly.” Cole put a hand on her shoulder and gently moved her away. “Your joking right. I haven’t seen my brother in two months Cole.” Zane had moved with Sensei and Lloyd to the next room, they began explaining the situation. Nya took a defensive stance in front of her fidgeting brother. “All I’m saying is that he’s had a rough time and you should give him his space.” Cole tried to be calm as he did his best to explain without making Kai uncomfortable. “It’s her brother Cole, you can’t just expect her to lay off.” Jay now added his opinion to the conversation. “And who asked _you_?” Cole retorted while moving his body to face the blue clad boy. Seeing the rising tension, Kai scooted closer to the door. When the three had their attention fully on the argument, he silently slipped out the door and made a run for his peaceful spot further down. But his sister caught him in the corner of her eye and made her way after him. The two boys were oblivious to the siblings escapes and continued their bickering.

  
_“Kai. Can you hear me?”_

  
That whisper. Where's it coming from. It sounds just like him.

  
_“I’m inside your head Kai. I told you, you can’t escape.”_

  
The voice was calm, soothing even, it gave the impression of comfort and love and care but Kai knew for a fact that it was not the case. That voice was poisonous, a snake that acts like your friend only to hurt you in the worst way possible.   
_“I’m not a snake Kai, I **am** your friend.”_

  
No your not! Stop saying you are!

  
Kai kept running down to the lower part of the ship, trying to ignore the footsteps behind him and the small voice talking inside his head. The sun was a little higher up in the sky now and with the added warmth of the sand beneath them, it heated the bottom of the ship even more. “Kai what’s wrong with you. Are you okay?” _Stop asking that irritating question!_ He ignored his sister and instead acknowledged the door that would protect him from their curiosity. His hand swiftly wrapped around the handle before swinging the door open and shutting it behind him. Nya knocked on the aging wood seconds after, her hammering getting louder each time. “Kai this isn’t funny anymore.” _It never was._ “Open the door and we can talk about it.” _You wouldn’t be able to help me._

  
_“Your right, she wouldn’t.”_ Kai let out a frustrated growl and gripped his hair. “Get out of my head.” He groaned, his head started pounding and his eyes burnt. He tried blinking it away but that wouldn’t work, rubbing them didn’t either. “W-what do you want?” The boy begged, tears welled up in his eyes and his vision started darkening. _“Isn't it obvious?”_ The voice asked in an innocent manner. “Kai open up the door!” In addition to Nya’s desperate cries, he could hear the rest of the team coming down the stairs, that door wouldn’t last long against Cole. His sight started slowly withering away and his eyes burnt even more. Laughter. Sick, twisted laughter that only came from one specific person that he knew. _“Oh come on Kai. I want my toy back. But your going to be punished for running away.”_

  
Please make it stop PleasePleasePlease   
_“Nothing can help you now”_

  
The whisper quieted down slowly and soon nothing could be heard except the frantic knocking of Nya and Kai’s own thoughts. But then his vision went completely dark, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t even think straight. In no time his legs gave out and Kai collapsed to the ground and laid motionless on the floor.

  
_“Fire's are so wild and unpredictable. They go as they please and destroy without a second thought. They’re lively and fun, they bring happiness and turmoil. Your fire Kai. And not just the master of it, you are the physical manifestation of this amazing element.” He looked at me after talking with those dark, ruby red eyes. Reading my soul as if it were an open book. “But fire has to be put out sometime. Extinguished. So let’s put your flame out with a little water shall we.” He dressed me in all white, white short sleeved shirt, white pants but he left me barefoot. I was thrown into my cell for the third time that day, only this time I hoped wouldn’t be getting dragged out again. The grey walls never changed, neither did the cold floor or my bed. Still messy, still useless. I stood up, my legs felt wobbly and the cold made my toes numb. The world seemed to be spinning, morphing into something else. It was confusing._

  
_That’s when things started falling back into place, the walls around that were boxing me in like an animal became more vivid, they locked me in here to punish me. She would be punished too. I finally learnt what the holes in my room mean, water started pouring out, filing my room slowly. The panic set in because it was not just water pouring through, the steam rising from it told me that much. When I got close enough to test, I burnt, the water was scalding hot. They were going to cook me alive! My first thought was that I had to get out of there, somehow escape this slow and painful torture. By now the water was brushing against the soles of my feel, burning the skin._

  
_“Let me out!” I screamed making sure to let them know how much agonising pain I was in, maybe that’s what they wanted. Maybe this is the reason for all the torture they put me through, they just wanted to hear my screams, to see me in pain. To watch me suffer slowly. I could feel -hear- my heart pounding in my chest, hammering against my ribcage. My breathing was erratic and made me dizzy. “Please let me out!” I screamed again but like before, it fell on deaf ears. The water was slowly climbing, it reached past my ankles now. Looking down at my feet I saw that they were glued to the spot I was standing in, I tried to make as little movement as possible to lower the pain. I but my lip to stop a loud sob from escaping. My body was trembling and I gripped the bars on the door to steady myself. “Help...” it came out softer than a whisper, drowned out by the rushing water in my room. The water raised to my calf and I tried to think of anything else but the boiling water stinging my skin through the thin pants. I rested my head against the cool metal bars as I let a short ragged breath out. “Please make it stop.” I muttered out. My hands shook violently and it got harder to stand the higher the burning liquid climbed. My eyes burnt as well and not long after a tear ran down my cheek. Then another and another. My grip on the bars tightened when the water reached my knees. My loud thoughts cancelled out the flowing water and I didn’t notice that it had stopped filling my room._

_Small vents hidden but the cloudy water opened up on the floor and it started draining my room. The painful process repeated itself as the water went slowly from my knees down again. My breath started coming back to me as most of the water vanished through the vents. I looked back down at my feet which had large blisters covering them, I didn’t even want to look at my legs and how bad they were. Luckily it only looked like first degree burns. Lifting my left foot, I used it to turn myself around and waddle back to my bed. Every movement sent searing pain shooting through my body. I threw myself onto my bed and braced myself for what I had to do next. Breathing in deeply and holding it, I hooked my thumbs in the stretchy waistband of the pants and started tugging down. It was a little hard since the I was sitting, but I managed to get it down to just above my knees. That’s when I realised that I didn’t have anything on under the pants,, it made me sick that, that man touched me. Bringing my attention back to my burns I started moving the white restriction further down. The tears restarted running down my cheeks and my uneven breathing can back but I still continued. It would only get better once I allow it to cool. As it fell to my ankles, on my feet, I stopped to compose myself and inspect the blisters on my legs. They were bad and needed to be treated soon but I didn’t know the first thing when treating a burn. Funny, the master of fire knows nothing about burns. I reached down and with my feet I threw the pants to some corner to the side. My hand hovered over the still hurting red of my skin, I had no idea what to do next, I didn’t know if that man was even going to come back an check on me. My question was answered as a soft knock sounded from the door. It opened after that and for a moment I thought it would be the man again but to my relief it was Sage. Her shorter figure and longer, darker hair contrasted with that man’s stature. Her blue eyes looked hurt as she walked into the room towards me. I suddenly felt very self-conscious when I realised that I had nothing to cover myself up with. But it soon vanished when I saw what she had on, it was an oversized shirt that only barely covered her small body, it had random splotchy blood stains, some were dry while others still dripped off of her. I saw her blush as I moved my hand to cover up, she kept her eyes low as she knelt in front of me and hovered her chained hands over my calf. She looked up at me for approval and when I nodded she quickly pressed down. I let out a gasp as the pain hit me but slowly dissipated when both her hands started glowing in the soothing white light._   
_My eyes got increasingly heavy and I felt extremely sleepy, Sage didn’t notice as she continued working. Spots danced around everywhere and my vision darkened. “S-Sage.” I whispered but she ignored me as if I hadn’t spoken. By head got too heavy for me to sit up straight and I fell over on my bed. I fluttered my eyes in an attempt to stay awake but nothing seemed to be working, and in no time I gave into the darkness._

  
“Kai, breath, wake up, do _something_!” The voices surrounding him were frantic and loud. He wanted them to stop, his headache was bad enough as it is he really didn’t need them making it worse. Where was he anyway, he couldn’t really remember so clearly. It was like someone walked into his head and messed with the timeline of his memories. He tried opening his eyes but that proved futile as they remained closed. “Come on Kai.” He couldn’t feel anything really, except that headache. That’s when the pickling feeling started slowly coming back to him, his fingertips and then his face.   
“Oh my God.” That’s Nya’s voice, was she crying? He sobs sounded like they were far away and muffled. “Come on Kai don’t die.” Don’t die? Who was speaking, it sounded like... Cole? _Yeah_. He felt a light pressure on his lips and then he felt his lungs expanding. Immediately after that he felt something hard start hammering on his chest. _Oh my God, their doing CPR on me, I’m dying!_

  
_“Your not dying little Fireboy. Just recovering.”_ That whisper crept through every fibre of his mind, injecting its poisonous words everywhere. _“Its okay, you can start breathing now Kai.”_ Directly after the whisper vanished, Kai’s eyes flew wide open and he sucked in a breath, feeding his hungry lungs. After that he coughed a little and looked around the room. The whole team was gathered around him and Nya was silently crying into Jay’s shoulder. He looked up to see Cole's tired smile. “You blacked out on us for a while there.” The ninja in black commented. "I'm sorry. For this morning as well." The boy in red sheepishly apologized. Kai continued breathing heavily as Cole helped him to sit up. _What just happened?_

  
** *Line break* **

  
Two hands were intertwined and resting between two chairs in a dark room with no form of light at all. Except for the subtle glow that they both radiated. One glowing a soft and gentle white and the other a striking red. The owner of the red hand had a menacing smile across his lips as he stared out at nothing. The smaller white hand’s owner had a frown on her face and her blue eyes held guilt and sadness. “That worked perfectly don’t you think.” The larger figure asked as he turned his head. The smaller one didn’t respond but only turned their head away in shame. “It’s a good thing I let you heal him all those times or else we wouldn’t have had a direct connection.” A small laugh emitted from his mouth. "T-this is w-wrong." A soft and feminine voice spoke up. "You can drop the stutter with me, your not with him anymore." Came the gruff reply. A soft sigh sounded throughout the room.  “I can’t wait to do that again.” His blood red eyes turned over to the innocent blue ones. “Don’t you agree sister?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there you go, I can't wait to start playing with that mind game concept again. Hope you liked it. Feedback is welcome, don't be shy to comment :)  
> Huge shout-out to SelinaEF for always reading and commenting, this chapter I dedicate to you, thank you :)


	11. Almost there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, hasn't it? I just started Grade 9 yeah! Okay, I won't blabber on, here's the chapter and its like over 5000 words long so enjoy.

“What the heck just happened to my brother?!” Nya exclaimed once she was over the sadness of the situation and her tears had dried up. She was red in the face as she pointed to Kai sitting on the coach wrapped in a blanket. Cole and Jay sat on either sides on him as Zane checked him over. She was standing in front of Sensei and Lloyd and the blonde boy tried to explain. “Nya calm down, we’re trying to figure this thing out.” He tried to reason with her but she continued ranting. “Kai almost died, why did he run off in the first place, what’s wrong with him?” Kai flinched at her last question, _nothing’s wrong with me. Is there?_ He continued to stare down at his folded gloved hands in his lap as he listened to their conversation. “Everything’s a little messed up right now but we’re gonna try and sort it out. Right guys?” Lloyd asked the boys surrounding Kai, to which they all responded with a nod. “Hey Nya, how about I make you a cup of tea?” Jay suggested, as he tried to coax Nya into the kitchen. Cole sent him a ‘thank you’ smile as she finally left the room. The space was filled with dragging silence as Sensei pondered over Kai’s condition. “What exactly happened?’ He asked in his usual old and rustic voice that sounded of an ancient and wise oak tree. Cole turned to Kai and saw that the boy was still looking into his hands as if he was watching something intently, but from his changes in expression it looked like he was having a conversation with his subconscious, Cole didn’t feel the need to bother him. “We don’t know Sensei, Kai hasn’t spoken much since he came home yesterday. But from what he showed us an hour ago, he seemed to have had a… traumatic experience.” Cole looked unsure with his information lacking statement, but Sensei stroked his beard as he always did when he was about to say something important or when he was thinking. He stopped his musings and looked at Kai. “Kai, what happened while you were away?” it was a direct question that would need Kai to explain to them how he was tortured and how cruel that man was to him. This was not going to happen, and it probably never will. With that in mind, Kai looked up to still see Zane analysing all his vital signs. His eyes were unfocused and he was tired, he couldn’t really do much and the thought of talking made him want to cringe, if only he had the energy for even that, “They are a human trafficking group that keeps some people as prisoners.” Kai didn’t move, he didn’t look around for a reaction and he didn’t put any effort into his answer. He was really tired but couldn’t bring himself to just get up and go to bed, he just couldn’t. What if those nightmares come back to haunt him, what if he never wakes up again. And besides, it was drilled into him that he had to ask before he did anything important. He breathed out slowly through his mouth as he attempted to relax himself. It was only afternoon and now was not the time to be utterly exhausted, he willed himself to stay awake.

“How was the group themselves Kai?” Sensei attempted again, this time no answer came from the brunette. Cole looked to Kai as he silently asked why he would not speak, but Kai continued to stare down at his hands and think, straight up ignoring them. “Kai how about we go up to the room and just take a break from all this.” Lloyd spoke up as he started walking towards the master of fire. Zane had stood up and moved out of the way and Cole stood as well to join Nya and Jay in the kitchen. The green ninja extended a gentle hand down towards Kai’s stoic face and waited for any sort of reaction. Kai wasn’t sure whether he should take the hand or try to deny that nothing was wrong, and fail of cause. But for some reason the kindness and love that came from Lloyd back in the med bay and that time during the night came to him now. At least Lloyd didn’t ask any questions and he understood, in a way. Kai reached up as he locked his sights with bright green looking down at him. Lloyd took Kai into their room and sat him down. After a short moment of silence Kai started shifting uncomfortably next to Lloyd. “You don’t have to talk, you look pretty beaten up after what happened down there.” He spoke in a soft voice as he stared to opposite wall down, Kai glanced at his direction when he got a response to his shifting. Kai didn’t actually know what to do now, he knew he had just experience an atrocious memory that he hoped he would never relive and now he was sitting side by side with the master of energy. Lloyd seemed a bit more understanding of his predicament, and he didn’t talk so much like Cole, or pry so much like Jay. He was just _there_. And he gave off this sense of home, of comfort that Kai had missed so much. Lloyd dropped his head down and Kai watched the golden stands glide down to cover his face, was something bothering him? The master of fire opened his mouth to speak but no words seem to form, so he instead closed it. He didn’t know what to say and felt pretty useless at the moment. There was no tension in the air, it wasn’t too cold since they were out in a desert and Lloyd seemed fine before this, what could have happened in their short walk to the bedroom.

“Lloyd,” His voice sounded husky and scratchy, it felt as terrible as it sounded. “Is something bothering you?” Kai felt like he hadn’t spoken in ages and all the screaming from his cell had damaged his throat beyond repair. Lloyd didn’t turn his head up to answer, nor did he make any movement to show that he had acknowledged the question. He continued quietly breathing while staring down into nothing. So Kai had to try again, but this time he made contact. He was hesitant at first but slowly he moved his hand up and closed the distance between his fingertips and the boys green clothed shoulder. At first Lloyd didn’t make a move and it felt as if he tensed up a little but then he relaxed and looked at Kai. “Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine. You should be more worried about yourself. We need to figure out what happened to you so that we can make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” Lloyd’s attitude shifted as if he had bipolar. First from that of sadness to worry and finally to anger, Kai had trouble keeping up with his changing expressions. Lloyd shrugged his hand of his shoulder and stood up before turning and speaking. “Are you feeling better?” Kai looked up at him and his eyes held a certain tint of authority to them. The ninja in red didn’t really want to speak in fear of angering the boy so he nodded instead, making sure to mask his worries in a semi-straight face. The boy in green turned back around and began walking to the door, Kai stood up and followed, unsure of where they were going.

Lloyd walked with long fast strides as he made his way back into the living room with the rest of the team. He took a seat close to Sensei Wu and watched intently as Kai made his way to sit next to Zane. The nindroid turned his worried gaze over to his friend as Kai shrunk into the seat, making himself smaller and invisible to them. He monitored how Kai’s heart rate rose when he caught the nindroid’s gaze upon him, Zane then turned away and watched as the beat steadied to a better pace. “So, you feeling better hot head?” Jay piped up. “Do you think I’d bring him back in here if he wasn’t?” Lloyd snapped as he whipped his head to glare at the master of lightning. This caused Kai to turn away and shrink even further into the soft pillows of the couch. “It’s just a question, geez Lloyd, don’t get your nickers in a knot.” Jay rolled his eyes at the boy. This caused Lloyd’s scowl to darken, “I’m not the one asking questions as useless as himself.” He shot back. Jay turned back to Lloyd with wide eyes as he had not expected him to say that. “What?” Seeing the brewing storm flash between the two brothers, Zane decided to step in. “Brothers, please do not fight. This is not about you, this about helping a friend.” He spoke up clearly and calmly. Lloyd was no longer giving off the love that he once did, now it seemed to be hatred, what happened? “Oh right, I forgot. This is about Kai, we have to help the poor little master of fire get his bravery back.” Lloyd focuses on Zane. “Lloyd stop!” Sensei Wu joined in. “What is happening with you?” he demanded as he stood up and held his staff as a show of power. The ninja in green didn’t answer but got up and walked out of the room fuming. “What’s his problem?” Nya asked as she walked past Lloyd into the room. “I have no idea.” Jay said when she took a seat next to him.

The silence between them was broken by the ringing of someone’s phone. Cole looked up in attention and reached into his pocket to pull out the device. “Huh, it’s my dad.” He muttered quietly and walked out of the room to have some privacy. Sensei Wu too walked out of the room in search of his nephew and to find out what has him so troubled. Jay sat awkwardly next to Nya as she laid her head on his shoulder in a loving manner, he stiffened up slightly but flashed a fake smile in her direction to reassure the girl. Zane continued to scan Kai, monitoring his heart rate and anxiety levels with each change of event. In the next room Cole started his conversation with his father but soon his tone took a curve ball and he raised his voice in a threatening manner, he slipped from English to Italian easily and was having a heated conversation with the person over the phone because there was no way that Cole would talk like that to his father. The muffled flow of words were foreign to the others in the living room except maybe for Zane if he was translating in his head. Soon Cole’s raised voice turned to full on shouting in the intricate language. Jay raised his eyebrow and Nya sat up to better hear. Kai looked confused and worried and Zane observed silently. Then Cole’s shouting came to an abrupt stop and they knew that the person over the phone had put it down in his ear, quite rude of them.

The master of earth came rushing into the room, flushed and breathing going haywire as cracks in the walls started forming and the ground beneath them shook. Jay jumped up and rushed over to his side to try and calm the black ninja, he put his hands on the broad shoulders to steady him from pacing in place. “Hey big guy, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.” Cole’s breathing had somewhat returned to normal and his green eyes darkened a shade, as he clenched his fists at his side. “My father’s been kidnapped.” He breathed out just above a whisper and he shut his eyes tight. Kai’s own eyes widened and he immediately rushed up to the room, Zane stood up and followed him to make sure that he stayed safe and history did not repeat itself. Nya got up as well and walked over to the two boys in front of her, she stood next to Jay and smiled up at Cole. “We’ll get him back Cole, don’t worry.”  In response to her comforting statement his black hair moved with the shake of his head. “He wants something in return.” His face was still looking down and Jay continued to hold onto his shoulders and his thumbs rubbed circles to try and relax them. “We can get it, whatever it is, we’ll help get it.” Jay said in a stern voice. “No you can’t.” Cole responded with another shake of his head. “Cole nothing is imp-.”

“He wants Kai!” he shouted at Nya before she could complete her sentence, she was slightly taken back by this and took a step away from him. Jay stopped his circles and stared and Cole’s sad face as tears threatened to spill. “He said that if we don’t hand Kai over them his gonna… his gonna h-hurt my dad.” He continued slowly and softly then he once again lowered his head. Jay turned towards Nya and mouthed for her to fetch Sensei. She hesitated for a moment before running off in search of the wise man.

Jay turned towards Cole again, the look of pure terror was still ebbed in his memory as he thought of how to make the boy in front of him feel better. He lifted his hands from their previous position on Cole’s shoulders and put them on either cheek to lift his head up. His palms and fingers made contact with wetness and he knew that the dam had broken from those green eyes. He struggled to hold back his own tears as he stared into their empty depths. “I can’t let him hurt my dad Jay.” The boy in blue wiped the stray tears away. “I know.” He answered. “But I can’t let him hurt Kai either.” Cole then said with determination. Jay let a small smile play on his lips. “I know you won’t.” Cole breathed in a shaky breath and his eyes drifted to his side and he stared at the insignificant couch behind Jay. “Hey, come on look at me.” The master of lightning urged and he nudged Cole’s head to the side. The ninja didn’t look up from the beguiling couch that somehow suddenly captured his interest. “Cole.” Jay tried again as his brows came together. Cole still didn’t move and his entire body relaxed, Jay was almost sure that the boy would just go limp. “Come on Boulder Brain.” Jay used his nickname in an attempt to wake him up from his trance. The bushy eyebrows formed a small frown in response. Jay was now frustrated of being ignored, he had been many times before but this was serious. And then his quick thinking, genius mind conjured up a plan. “Let’s play a game.” He said in a lighter voice. “Jay, I’m not in the mood for this.” Cole groaned out. “No, this will be fun. Okay, for every happy thought you say out loud—you get a reward, how’s that sound?” Jay explained. “What’s the reward.” Cole asked as he looked up and raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Now why would I tell you that?” Jay said with a smug smile plastered across his face. “There’s nothing to be happy about, nothing.” Cole replied rather glumly which caused the gingers smile to drop and his happiness to drain into nothing.

“Except maybe the walking ball of sunshine standing in front of me.” The master of earth then added which brought the joy back into the ocean blues. “So what’s my reward.” Cole asked smiling. Jay rolled his eyes at the impatience of the boy but he promised a reward and a reward is what he’s going to get. Jay placed a soft and gentle kiss on the ebony ninja’s lips, Cole was quick to accept and return the kind gesture. It didn’t last long, two seconds tops, but it was long enough to put a smile and a blush on both their faces. “Someone could have seen that.” Cole remarked. “Would it have mattered?” Jay replied, which got him another shake of the head as a response. “Good, now let’s go and help our friend.” Jay said as he let go of Cole’s face and turned towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

“Kai please open up the door.” Zane knocked on the wood for the tenth time now. “Tell me what is wrong, maybe we can help.” Still no response came to the nindroid’s pleads. Zane could hear the erratic and panicked breathing through the door and he kept monitoring Kai’s escalating heart rate. At this rate, the boy was sure to have a panic attack soon and with the locked door there wasn’t much Zane would be able to do to help. Maybe Cole would be able to help, but remembering the master of earth’s past mood, he wasn’t sure Cole would be up to it. He could always freeze the door and just shatter it but that would only cause Kai to shy away from help even more. Zane sighed and he rested his head against the cool wood, he smiled at the calming effect it seemed to have. “You are okay Kai. Nobody is going to hurt you in anyway as long as I am here. As long as you _family_ is here to protect you.” He spoke softly but it was still audible through the door. Kai’s breathing started slowing down which was a relief but he still had to open the door. “We are all here for you brother.” Zane added once he was making progress with the situation. The ice master wanted answers but his brothers wellbeing significantly outweighed that desire, whatever this threat was that had Kai acting in such a skittish way was affected them all, and in a very negative way.

“I don’t think you’re going to get him to come out Zane.” Cole remarked as he came around the corner and saw the titanium ninja standing outside the bedroom door. “Don’t be such a pessimist Cole.” Jay said as he walked alongside the master of earth. “Our deal still holds you know.” Cole considered this then he huffed out and forcibly put a smile on his face. “Should I break the door down again?” He asked the ice wielder and he too stood in front of the wooden barrier. “No, that would only make things worse.” Zane knocked on the door again. “Kai, we are here for you. Could you please open the door?”

Inside the bedroom Kai stood pushed up against the furthest wall away from the door and hugged his knees. “I can’t go back, I can’t go back.” I mumbled through muffled sniffs. That man was sure to use Lou against them, he probably asked for Kai in exchange for the old man. But Kai knew there was no way that he would give up, the musician shared his forest eyes with his son and green eyes meant a very painful and permanent stay in his prison. But he couldn’t just sit in this room forever, hiding from his brothers. Cole would break down the door and drag Kai to that man in exchange for his father. The others were probably holding him back right now. “Kai please open up the door, Cole’s not made if that’s what’s bothering you, tell him Cole.” That was Jay’s voice, a huff from Cole accompanied his speaking. “I’m not mad at you Kai, but if we’re gonna figure this mess out then we need to do it as a team okay?” his soothing slightly accented tone brought very little comfort to his troubled mind but he had to bite the bullet, for his team, his family. If they decided to hand him over then he would go, knowing that they would make a plan to get him back. Kai stood up off the ground and hesitated before pushed down the handle and opening the door the come face-to-face with a smiling Jay, Zane and even Cole. “Everything’s going to be sorted out properly.” Cole spoke up.

“Guys, Sensei wants to see all of us in the control room.” Nya informed them as she came running around the corner almost out of breath, she lingered her eyes on Cole before coughing and turning around. “Well we better get down there.” Jay piped in as he headed in Nya’s direction.

** *Line Break* **

Sage sat on a large puffy beanbag in the corner of the abstract looking room. It was coloured in all the bright colours you could think of, neon orange and yellow decorated roof and rainbow shapes overlapping each other where on the walls. But no windows, none of the rooms had windows. Weirdly shaped chairs and tables filled the room as well as an art station in the back corner. Shane sat on the floor in another corner playing with his knives as if he was in a trace. His red eyes barely acknowledging the bright and happy tones surrounding him, Sage on the other hand happily soaked up the beauty around her. Her twin may be completely crazy but he was very artistic and when he put his mind to it then he could actually do something positive. She didn’t talk, she just watched him from the corner of her eye as she relaxed further into the soft seat. “What are you looking at.” He asked not looking up but somehow sensing her eyes on him. Sage sighed and slumped even further into the seat, ignoring her brother’s question in the process. “Now that we have that boy’s father, they have to give Kai up.”

“Yeah, kidnapping some poor boy’s father is the way to go alright.” She responded softly. “Sage. Don’t take to me like that.” He said as he ceased his blade movements and sat up to better see his sister. “What? I can’t have a normal conversation with my only family?” Sage said angrily. “Stop speaking to me like you don’t care about me.” He said with a softer tone this time. Sage had moved to sit up straight as well to face her brother in the developing argument. “I didn’t have a choice did I? You killed the rest of our family!” Sage hadn’t really meant to raise her voice but living with your insane brother for most of your life tends to bring a lot of stress into one’s life. “I didn’t get a chance to love any of my family since you slaughtered them!” she was standing up and glaring her brother down. “I barely even knew our mother, you kept her away from me. What kind of brother does that to his _twin?_ And then you had to start this whole underground slave trade thing that completely ruins not only my life but others as well. How many people have you already killed, how many people are you still going to kill. This is ridiculous Shane!” Sage shouted at her brother as she turned red and she clenched her fists at her side while both of her hands emitted a soft, barely visible light. Shane sat unfazed, with a calm expression on his face. He stood up and with his light brown hair falling over he’s eyes, he walked over to Sage. Shane’s larger form shadowed hers a little as he put one arm around her waist to pull her close and the other around her neck. Sage didn’t react or say anything against it but kept her eyes wide open for anything that might come her way.

“I’m sorry that you don’t have mom or dad anymore.” He whispered softly next to her ear. “But this is my vessel and I don’t appreciate it being yelled at.” Sage’s eyes grew wide and she tried pushing away from him but his glowing, hot, red hand held her in place, burning her skin. She sobbed against his chest as she begged for the pain to subside. “Kai is mine, not yours. Maybe killing that old man with teach you to shut up.” He let her go and threw her back onto the bean bag. “No! Stop!” using her own powers to calm him down Sage gripped his arm and held him in place. “Please Shane I know you’re in there.” She said in an unsteady and shaky voice. “How many times do we have to go over this Sage, _Shane’s not here now_. Please try again later.” he said with an evil, drawn on smirk across his lips. His red eyes had turned into a bright neon green and his usual caramel skin turned into a sickly pale colour. He pushed her hand off and continued to walk towards Lou Brookstone’s room.

Shane’s fist hammered against the dark wood before he threw the door open and waltzed inside while throwing is knives in the air to make a show of them. The poor man’s moss green orbs eyed the sharp blades fearfully and scooted away from the approaching figure. “Mr Brookstone, or do I call you Lou? Your son was offered a chance to rescue you in exchange for something that he had stolen. Something of mine to be exact. Now I gave him a chance and it seems that your son has not delivered so sadly I will be forced to make an example out of you.” He said with a large smile and his green eyes glowing as well as both his hands. “Please don’t, I didn’t do anything wrong. My son would never abandon me!” Lou shouted out. The brunette rolled his eyes. “Why am I being shouted at today?” he asked in a casual tone. “You love your son right? You’d give him everything, the world, your heart, anything that he wants right?” Lou nodded his head at the question. “Then I will personally make sure that he will have your eternal and undying love.” Shane’s voice sounded hollow and lacking… something, as his smile continued to grow. Lou whimpered away from him and he bent down and dragged the musician out of the room. “You know, you’re really special, you have green eyes and those kind of people always get special treatment here.” The man remarked as he made his way down the narrow passages. They reached a grey, metallic looking door and once it was opened, Shane threw Lou inside. The poor man barely had time to regain his balance before he was pulled up and dragged onto the table in the middle of the room, his arms, legs and neck were strapped in. “What are you going to do?” Lou asked in a meek sounding voice. “Now, now sir. You shouldn’t question your doctor.” Shane said with a wave of his finger. From the table next to Lou’s head, Shane picked up a surgical mask and some white gloves. He put the gloves on with a loud snap and then proceeded to put on the mask and roll his sleeve up. “I do hope this doesn’t get too messy, I hate cleaning up.” Shane mumbled to himself. This only increased Lou’s fears as Shane pulled his shirt up to reveal his chest. The warm hands felt over his ribs, pressing down every-so-often. “Mmm, bones are really hard. I guess they have to be if they keep your body together but sometimes they can just get annoying.” Shane continued to mumble as he went along. “Okay Mr Brookstone, I’m going to give you a little injection in your belly that’s going to numb your chest okay?” Shane said in a reassuring way, to which Lou furiously shook his head. “Please don’t hurt me.” He begged. “I’m not going to hurt you, that’s what the numbing agents for silly.” Shane said in a childlike manner.

Shane started humming an unknown song as he got to work with the needle and injected it as he had said. The agent took effect immediately and soon Lou couldn’t feel anything below his neck and above his waist. “Now let’s get to work, I want you to keep your eyes on me Mr Brookstone, if you feel any discomfort then please don’t be afraid to speak up.” Shane reached over back to the table and picked up a scissor. “Okay, now sir I just want to examine the strength of your bones so you might feel some pressure by your ribcage okay, oh and I hope you don’t like this shirt cause I’m going to need to cut it.” Shane picked up a mini curtain from the floor under the table and shielded Lou’s eyes from seeing his chest. “Why do you need to cover up?” he asked the brunette. “I don’t know, I always see other doctors doing it.” And with that dismissive statement, he continued working. Lou could see Shanes head, but nothing else and it made the man feel uneasy. Just as he had said, the shirt had been cut and was sent flying to the other side of the room. “So tell me about Cole.” Shane started casually. Lou was a bit taken back by this but thought it best to answer his questions. “He’s kind like his mother, and strong like her too. He’s a ninja but I suppose you already knew that.” Shane continued to nod his acknowledgment and hum his approval. “Do you know the rest of the ninja team?” he asked. While he and Lou were talking, his shoulders moved around a lot and sometimes he would grunt as if he was struggling with something. As promised Lou felt a slight pressure on his ribcage and lungs but didn’t say anything as he was warned about it before. I don’t know much about them, other than their names and a little of their personality. They don’t tend to visit often, too busy saving Ninjago.” Lou continued to speak. “Oh, I see. And does Cole phone or visit?” he grunted again behind the mask as he deposited something onto to table next to him, Lou couldn’t see this however because of the curtain. “Sometimes when we’re in the same town or city” Lou replied half-heartedly. “Hey, I’m starting to feel pain, in my lungs I think. Maybe that serum’s wearing off.” He voiced his opinions in a drowsy voice. He was starting to feel extremely tired. “Don’t worry, your almost done sir.” No later than when Shane spoke the words did he huff in satisfaction. “Okeydokey, all done! Now I can show Cole how much you love him.” Shane said as Lou heard him take off the glove and then remove the mask. “What do you mean?” Lou asked sceptically. “I mean this.” Shane said as he smiled at Lou and removed the curtain.

What greeted his eyes was horrific beyond words, it made his breath hitch and tears not only cloud his eyes but flow freely down his face. He would have had a heart attack, if he wasn’t staring at his heart right now. He tried breathing but he felt as if the air wouldn’t go down. “Don’t worry sir, I’ll make sure that this gets to Cole safely.” Shane said as he patted the blood soaked organ in his hands. Lou’s face paled as the colour left it, the blood no longer pumping through him. His entire chest was cut open and on the table laid the scissors, soaked in blood. The serum was starting to wear off now and the burning pain enveloped his chest, sending his body into an uncontrollable fit. “Don’t be so dramatic.” Shane said with a roll of his eyes. The heart was being bounced in the palm of his hand as Shane strolled out of the room humming to himself.

As he closed the door behind him, Sage came running down the passage. “What did you do to him?” She asked fearfully, her black hair was tied up in a messy bun and her eyes looked paler than their usual cold blue. “Nothing, I’m delivering a very important message.” He said as he lifted the heart for her to see. Sage gasped a took a step back, “You-You…” she stuttered as she backed away from this monster, every time he took over then something like this would happen. “And when I weaken the shepherd, this wolf will go for the sheep, I already wormed my way into the green one’s head, not long before the blue falls too.” A mischievous smile played on his lips and he squeezed the heart, he watched as blood dripped and pooled at his feet. His plan would soon be complete and once he has Kai back and then he can live out his days with an endless supply of food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you confused, if you are then I'm doing this right. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Don't forget to leave a comment, I love chatting to you guys. And I just had to add my favourite shipping in there.


	12. Tumble Down Little One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much pain. So much hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you have the long overdue chapter of Distraction. I apologize for the wait, fair warning; prepare yourself...

The control room was being kept cool from the sweltering heat, the icy atmosphere hit them as soon as the group of ninja entered. The wise old Sensei was sitting at the table as he sipped his tea slowly like he always did, Lloyd was seated next to him. The green ninja had a bothered face and he gazed intently at his hand instead of looking up at the team as they entered. The control room wasn’t cluttered but it certainly contained quite a lot of technology, computers lined the walls as well as the odd machine that no one besides Nya and Jay knew how to work. Against the wall was a large screen that had a map of Ninjago constantly showing on it, and the centre table served two purposes to the team. It was used as a normal table when they were planning strategies or discussing important mission details and when they needed to pinpoint a more accurate and detailed area from the map. Hidden underneath the first wooden board of the table was another screen which could be interacted with. Nya entered first, followed by Cole and Jay and then Zane and Kai entered lastly.

Sensei skimmed over his team as they each found their own seats at the table, Nya was standing at the head as well as Cole who was standing next to Jay between his secret lover and Zane. Zane reassure the master of fire by giving him friendly smiles every time he looked aver, he could see Kai’s anxiety increase when they entered the room and wanted to prevent anything drastic from happening. He knew the wise Sensei was aware of the group’s problems and was about to address them, Kai’s problems would be talked and sorted out first and then he would maybe turn his attention to the untrustworthiness of some people in this family. Zane knew that Cole and Jay were hiding something from the team because of their frequent private meetings. Zane as well as the rest of the team looked towards their Sensei as they waited patiently for the elderly man to begin the meeting.

Sensei spoke in the same rustic voice that he always did, “I know that we have all been experiencing problems of our own, but now is the time to address them. We all know about Kai-.”

“I don’t, Sensei.” Nya interjected, she crossed her arms over as she expressed her irritation. Not knowing her brother’s state of mind bothered her and knowing that the rest of them did made her angry as well. “Okay Nya, Kai has just come back from his mission but he refuses to share the details. Why is that, Kai?” Sensei answered Nya’s question and asked Kai at the same time. The empty atmosphere that surrounded the small group was suffocating but it wasn’t unwelcome to most. It meant that it could be filled.

Kai took a deep calming breath but nothing seemed to help, his brain said that he should explain everything, how they could be in danger and that Cole’s father is going to be tortured because of him. The brunette bit his lip gently and closed his eyes, but he didn’t have to explain himself since his brother in arms did it for him. “This guy phone me earlier Sensei, I didn’t get his name but he said he wanted Kai back. He kidnapped my father for him.” The ebony haired boy said to the Sensei with a gloomy look on his face. His big bushy eyebrows were brought together in an intense frown and his hands were at his side, sifting in and out of fists. Once Kai heard him, his heart started pounding again in fear, his palms had gotten sweaty but his gloves quickly helped with that factor.

“Well we can’t give Kai to him.” Nya said, her tone filled with anger and her stance mimicking her emotion. “Are you saying that we should just let my dad die? You’re not the only one who only has one member of their family alive you know.” Cole said as he turned around with his own annoyed pronouncement. Nya raised a challenging eyebrow at seeing his rising frustration. “I realise that he has you father Cole, but are you seriously considering giving my brother up to this guy? Who knows how long Kai had already been trying to get away from him.” She retorted in bewilderment. Cole grit his teeth together as his hands closed into the fists they’d been shifting into. The group watched the argument unfold with curiosity, even Lloyd, but Jay decided it best to end it before things escalated. “Hey guys come on, don’t fight. Both of you have a valid point and will both be considered.” It turned out, that was the wrong thing to say. “ _Considered?”_ Cole echoed as his face shifted to shock.

“I’m sure Kai wouldn’t appreciate being given off to this strange and unknown man.”

“See, Zane agrees with me.” Nya said as she gestured to the nindroid sitting at the table. “You’ve got to be joking.” Cole breathed out as if it took effort and the air had just been knocked out of him. “Cole the entire team has a say in this. Kai is our brother too.” This time Lloyd added his voice to the debate.

“Wow, aren’t you guys just one, big, happy family.” During their discussion nobody had noticed the large screen against the wall change and flicker to life. Replacing the usual Ninjago map was now a face, he had sombre red eyes, an atypical eye colour for someone to have, and he had dirt brown, short and wavy hair that fell carelessly over his face. He nose was a well-defined one and his face had a child-like roundness to it. But even though his features were noteworthy, it didn’t take away from the murky feeling his drawn on smile seemed to show. “Who are you?” Wu asked slowly as he eyed the man on screen.

He pulled a face resembling that of someone hurt but his mouth remained in the semi-smile. “Ouch. I am so hurt, so neither Cole nor Kai told you about me?” the man asked and then turned his gaze to the two mentioned boys. “I would have expected Kai to at least say something.” He continued.

“You’re the guy that has Cole’s father.” Jay stated as realisation dawned upon him, Nya looked over to her brother with worry while the rest of then looked up to the stranger and waited for his answer. “Well, yes I do. That’s why I called in actually.” The man fiddled with the camera for a little while and soon it came off whatever it was resting on, he carried it over to another part of the room before putting his face in front of it again. “Kai, remember that girl that you left behind?” Kai visibly tensed and swallowed the rising lump in his throat. He then nodded towards the screen. “Well I can tell you that she’s alive. She was never your friend Kai, she’s my sister and she was meant to deceive you. But sadly her usefulness has run out so I’m giving her up.” The camera turned to reveal Sage.

The young girl was sitting limply on a chair, her limbs were draped over it and her arms were tied behind her back. Her hair fell over her face and hid her pained expression from them. Embedded in her abdomen was a silver knife that was stuck so deep in that only the hilt was visible. “I’d say she has about three hours to live, give or take.” The man commented. The team’s eyes were darting between Shane and Kai as they tried to fathom what was happening and why this half dead girl was put in front of them. Nya looked away and tried to restrain herself from emptying her stomach while Sensei looked to Kai for answer to the questions he hadn’t asked yet. “You can come and fetch her if you’d like to, but I cannot guarantee that I won’t be taking someone to replace her.” He sang as he smiled childishly.

“So you want us to come to _your_ home and rescue this girl but in exchange you want one of us? What about my dad?” Cole spoke up and eyed the man with extreme hate. “Well I’m afraid I, uh, I needed a replacement for Jeremy.” The man answered as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Kai closed his eyes concentrated on trying not to cry, Jeremy was such a good person, why did this man have to kill him? “What does that mean?” Cole barked out as he looked at the man with a deathly glare.

The man gave him a mischievous smile that sent shivers down the team’s spine. “Cole. Your father loved you very much.” That was the worst news that Cole could get right now, his face fell and his arms hung limply at his sides and he looked up at the man on screen. His green eyes no longer shone with the dark vibrancy it once had, his face looked a shade paler and if it was even possible, his hair seemed to lose some of its rebellious puffiness. “But I wanted to show you how much your father cared for you.” Shane nodded his head in a knowing manner. Then he reached down, not taking his eyes off of Cole, and pulled up the object for the camera and the entire team to see.

His hand was stained crimson from the still dripping organ he held in his hand, the sanguine fluid leaked out of gashes around its sides. Jay gaged and turned his head as he felt himself wanting to hurl. “You will forever have his heart. You can come and pick it up when you rescue Sage over there.” He ended with a wicked laugh and smiled at the team standing before him before turning the camera off.

As soon as the screen went black, the team looked towards Cole who hadn’t stopped staring. His mind was tried to comprehend what had just happened. He stood idle in front the group before Zane spoke up. “Cole. How are you feeling?” the nindroids calming voice spoke up over the suffocating silence, it seemed to echo off the icy cold walls. “How am I feeling?” Cole muttered, still in shock. “Cole…” Jay whispered when he took a steady step forward and reached out his hand.

_He’s gone._

_I’m alone._

_He’s dead._

_He. Is. **Dead** …_

Cole took a sudden breath an and whipped around to walked out of the room but every step he took made the Bounty shake with a ferocious force. Some of the walls cracked because the violent earthquakes that the master of earth was causing. “Calm him down.” Sensei said in a shaky voice as he struggled to keep his balance. Lloyd and Nya were already on the ground, Kai soon joined them while Zane kept Sensei upright and Jay chased after Cole. Alarms began going haywire with reports of buildings being destroyed in the sudden earthquake, video footage showed people screaming in the streets, business buildings crumbling to the ground as if they were sandcastles. The casualties would be staggering when they did a body could when this is all over. _If this will ever be over._

“We need to get out there and help!” Nya said, he voice sounding meek as she pointed to the horrifying clips of citizens evacuating. With a stoic nod, Zane steadied their Sensei and helped Kai and Lloyd up, Nya hobbled over to the console and typed in a few commands before her Samurai X suit landed on the deck of the ship. “What about Jay?” Lloyd asked as Zane guided the group outside. “I am sure he can take care of himself, I doubt Cole would hurt him.” Zane responded, immediately taking control of the situation. Nya continued feeding them reports when they took off to the city, it looked like there were still some people stuck in an underground bunker and needed help getting out before they suffocated. Zane gave them each complex instructions, that by some miracle, they understood and soon the team was spilt up as they tried to help as many people as they could. But they were two members short and it certainly made an impact on their performance, Zane thought it best that Kai travel with Lloyd since he was still partially in shock and it would be better if he was with someone he trusted. No objection came to the order but Lloyd knew that Kai was in no position to run around saving traumatised people.

The master of fire just followed Lloyd, he didn’t scan the area for citizens in need, and he did not look out for any trouble that might come their way. He just followed Lloyd, followed the bright green energy dragon in front him, and followed the boy who was apparently leading them to a place in the park where there was word of trouble. “Kai, you okay back there?” he blonde shouted back to the red ninja flying closely behind him.

Luckily for them the shuddering of Earth had stopped and most people were starting to recover from the initial shock, rescue teams were already moving in to help the ninja. Zane had reported in, so did Nya and they were scheduled to meet at the precinct, which had surprisingly stayed intact. Lloyd alerted the rest of his team that he and Kai were on their way to the park and would be back as soon as the problem was resolved.

Along the way, Lloyd couldn’t shake the pain that had suddenly plagued his mind, it was like a headache, an intense headache that made him feel dizzy. They landed on the soft and lush grass littered with scraps and debris from crushed buildings and trees. The two ninja heard sobbing coming from somewhere behind the trees, when they went to investigate they spotted two young women on the ground. One was holding the other in her arms and crying as she spoke softly to the younger looking women cradled gently in her lap. “Please help my sister, he leg was cut.” He women pleaded when she saw the two young boys come closer to her. “We need to get her to a hospital.” Lloyd stated the obvious as examined the women currently bleeding out. Kai kneeled down with Lloyd beside and moved her leg to get a better look at the injury. “It’s infected and she’s losing a lot of blood fast.” He tore of a piece of his gi, leaving his undershirt as the only thing covering his skin from the nippy air around them. The tightly wrapped the thin strip of cloth just above the open wound, making a tight knot which cause the lady the jolt as if she had just been electrocuted. “Come on, she can fly with me and you can take the mother.” Lloyd stated as he stood up and picked up the women.

The ringing in his ears was getting worse, he could barely hear anything besides the rushing of wind past his face and the supressed sobs of the women. “What, you’re gonna leave without saying hello?” Came a calm, and smooth voice from beside on of the trees. Leaning against the dark bark was the same man that had called in not even thirty minutes ago, eyeing the small group. Lloyd got into a defensive stance and pulled out one of the two swords strapped to his back after putting the women down gentle behind him. “What do you want?” The man sighed at the green ninja’s challenging tone and even chuckled a little. “Have we not been over this already? I want Kai, he wants Sage and you want me. Everybody wants something and now I want you beautiful.” He said and strolled over closer to Lloyd. “Stay away from us!” he warned and gripped the blade tightly in his hands. “Or you’ll what? Cut me with your butter knife.” He laughed and shook his head, tussling the already messy brown birds nest. “I don’t think you’ll do any of that Lloyd.” He moved a little closer and moved the blade away with a slight nudge of the hand. “But I _do_ want you to do something for me.” Lloyd relaxed and loosely held his sword in front of him. Kai moved the two women behind him and took out his own katana as a safety precaution.

Shane moved to stand closely next to Lloyd, still facing Kai, and whispered in his ear. In response to whatever he said Lloyd gave a very childish giggle like he’d just been told a joke about something bad. “Just stay behind me okay.” Kai spoke softly as he tried to conquer the bone chilling fear that he was feeling. The only thing keeping him from going hysterical was his brother and the two women cowering behind him. “What’s your favourite colour Kai?” Shane asked slowly and took a few steps towards him, turning Lloyd around too. The young boy turned teen looked insane, he had a wide smile on his face and a kid-like glimmer in his eyes. But they were not full of life like the usually sparkling greens, they were dead and empty. They did not hold Lloyd in them but instead a crazed child obsessed with the sight of blood like his ‘father’. “I-I like the colour red.” Kai answered back and tried to keep eye contact with the playful and threatening red. “Daughters or mothers?” He asked and kept his cheek stretching smile on the entire way. “I d-don’t understand the question.” Kai answered hesitantly and put a protective hand in front of the women. “You’re lying again. Is it because you’re scared?” Kai gulped before answering a third time. “Yes.”

“Okay then, Lloyd you can choose. Daughters or Mothers?” Lloyd answered with an unnaturally deep voice and curious eyes. “I’ve never really been a fan of my mother, but I never had a sister before. So I choose… eenie meenie minie mo, catch a dead one by the toe.” He pointed between the two women and his finger landed on the shivering mother. Now Kai couldn’t even call the others since he didn’t bother to take a ‘communication bud’ as Jay called them. “Lloyd don’t do this, he’s playing you. Fight back.” Kai offered support to his friend. “You’ve been gone for less than one day and you’re already like _this_. I guess I’ll have to start my training all over again. Lloyd please do the honours.” Shane waved his hand to the trio before them. Lloyd grinned widely and pulled his sword back just before it went flying through the air.

Kai moved in front of the mother and closed his eyes as he waited for the shining blade to pierce his chest. But none ever came, instead the younger daughter next to him dropped dead to the ground with the sword sticking through her body. Her eyes were wide with agony, fear, regret, anger, everything that should not be on the face of a dead women. “Now Kai, please listen because what I’m going to tell you will be very handy in the next few minutes. Are you listening?” Kai nodded his head but couldn’t take his eyes off that of the women as her lifeless eyes looked right at him. The mother ran to her daughter’s side and shouted out to Shane, to which he just rolled his eyes and threw a knife at her, silencing her cries. “Lloyd’s going to feel a little weird when I leave, he’s going to be deaf for a while until I say otherwise. You will be going into another… let’s call it an ‘episode’, so when Lloyd passes out now you are going to radio your team and tell them where you are. You’ll have a few seconds before you say good-night so make it count.” He turned around and waved good-bye, as he walked away Kai heard him mutter something, “I do just love the hunt.”

Not long after, did the idle Lloyd collapse to the ground with a groan, Kai watched as his friend fell to the ground and then he turned his head to look at the dead women next to him, the dead women that they came here to save. Then the man’s words floated through his mind once more, ‘ _You’ll have a few seconds before you say good-night so make it count.’_ His legs felt like they were glued to the ground and if he took a step he would fall and never get up again. But as Kai was thinking about the scary looking grass beneath him, memories started surfacing, reminding him that he would soon follow Lloyd into the sleeping state.

_‘Just put one foot in front of the other.’_

The black dots from this morning returned and Kai once again felt the soothing temptation of darkness trapping him in a bubble. He stumbled and fell to the ground, as he had thought, his arms didn’t want to move and neither did his legs. But he had to push on, with a clouded and fuzzy mind, just about limp body and almost no way of opening his eyes, Kai crawled over to Lloyd’s body. Mind numbing pain seeped over his mind and he struggled to breath. All the fear from earlier was coming back and soon his breathing was the only thing to keep him company as the rest of the world was shut out. “J-just a l-little—.”

  _‘The voices are real…’_

_They laugh, tell jokes, scream, scare, sooth and do all the things you want and don’t want them to do. And when you smile… when you smile, they smile right back at you. And then they vanish, leaving you cold and letting the chill penetrate your very being without them blanketing you in the warmth of their bubbly laughter. Your smile vanishes as if it were never there to begin with. Then suddenly the darkness around you seems to feel more real than before and without the company you begin to realise that you’re truly alone._

_‘You’re alone’_

**_Line-*-*-*-*-Break_ **

_“Does it hurt when I do this?”_

_“Can I put you in here?”_

_“Can you still feel your legs?”_

_“Do I need to stop?”_

_“Is it okay if I don’t stop?”_

**_“Tell me when you’re dead.”_ **

_I don’t want to feel like this anymore. It hurts so much. Make the hurt go away. Please make him go away._

_“Tonight we’re going to get you out of here. Are you listening Kai?” I nod. “Good, okay so when he leaves the room to get me then I’ll distract him while you run. I promise I’ll be right behind you.” I nod again. “You’ll finally be free Kai, aren’t you happy?” Would it be bad if I shake my head?_

_**“Wow, really? You sure you can handle that?”**_

**_“Talking only makes it worse.”_ **

**_“Just know that I’m here for you, we all are.”_ **

**_“W-why should I be afraid?”_ **

**_“I can’t help you if you won’t let me in.”_ **

_If only I still had that pretty, white rose, maybe thinks will heal again._

**_Line-*-*-*-*-Break_ **

“Are you sure they’re going to be okay. They’re not waking up.” The world was hazy around him and the voices barely registered. “Yes, I am sure they are okay. They are just sleeping for now.” At least that one was a little clearer, but it was also a lot closer. “How is he doing?” Who’s _he_? “Oh. Well he’s better I guess. But he’s not talking, I don’t think he’ll be coming out of his room for a while.” There’s that fuzzy voice again, he was thinking about getting up and telling them to be quiet but that seemed like so much effort. He’d rather just lay here and wait for them to go away, but what good would that do? He heard a door close and assumed that one or both of the people were out of the room, he could try sitting up but his limbs were still not responding. Then he heard a groan, and some shifting, he turned his head to the side as best he could and saw Lloyd. The blonde was folding himself into a ball but he’s face looked like it was in pain. His brows were pushed together and the lines on his forehead were dotted with small droplets of sweat. His breathing was shallow and he was holding his abdomen tightly, hugging himself.

He wanted to call for help but for some reason his mouth couldn’t open, his lips moved just fine, he just couldn’t move his jaw. “Lloyd!” he mumbled out, the boy kept on groaning softly, what if he really was in pain? “Lloyd!” He tried again, by now all the excess movement had caused his jaw to pulse with burning pain that forced him to shut his eyes and take a break. What was wrong? Kai shifted around on the hard table, trying to turn on his side and reach out. His hand barely brushed against Lloyd’s own before the boy widely opened his eyes and struggled for air. “Shh.” Kai soothed the panicking boy but still found it hard to talk. “Help will come.” He managed to get out and partially smile. But Lloyd didn’t calm down but rather seemed even more frantic. “K-K-Kai.”

Ragged and violent breathing. “Why…”

His voice went high and he struggled again.

“Why can’t I hear?” his voice broke so much that Kai had trouble just understanding him, loud sobs shook his body, he desperately wanted to hear something, _anything_. Kai’s face morphed into that of sadness as he withdrew his hand and halted himself from talking, it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t know what to say and just watching the blonde shrivel up made him feel completely useless, he wanted to help Lloyd but what could he do?

Lloyd then emitted heart wrenching scream, he was still trying to hear. Kai felt his own wet droplets glide over his face when the boy next to him tugged at his own ears.

The door to the room flew open and everyone came rushing in, Kai heard them frantically asking what was wrong but Lloyd hardly acknowledged them since his eyes were shut tight. “H-he’s deaf.” Kai blurted out, Zane stopped what he was doing and turned to Kai, “What was that?” he asked and prompted Kai to speak up. He needed a moment to compose himself and get the words right through his clenched teeth. “He. Is. Deaf.” Zane’s eyes widened for a split second before he quickly turned to Lloyd and began examining him while still attempting to calm to boy down. “What?” Jay asked as his shocked expression came into view, Cole looked fearfully to Lloyd’s body on table. “Are you sure?” Nya asked him. Of cause he was sure, he had heard the words spew out of that tainted mouth, and it replayed over and over in his mind, telling him that not even his friends were safe from his menacing reach. “Yesh I’m shure. Why can’t I speak?” Kai asked irritated by whatever was keeping his mouth shut.

“Kai…” Zane began slowly, his arms coming to a rest at his sides as he took a deep and calming breath in. “When we found you, somehow and we’re not exactly sure how but, you’re jaw was broken. It was popped out of its socket and the hospital had to close you up.” Kai fisted his hands and turned his head away from Zane. “Okay.” He murmured and closed his eyes. “How long have we been asleep?” He then asked but kept his head turned away from their sorry eyes. “It’s been about two days.” Nya said, Kai responded with a sigh and shut his eyes. “How did you know where we were?” Zane turned back to Lloyd and proceeded to tend to his brother. “Lloyd called in when we were done with most of the evacuation. Don’t you remember?” He did but tried his best to supress and memories involving Lloyd and that park. Even after all that sleep he still felt so tired.

A few minutes passed and by then Zane had put Lloyd under a mild aesthetic since the boy refused to calm down and rest, Kai had tuned them out and while his sister still tried to make contact with him he refused to even try. His mind was a haze and he felt completely drained and useless to his team right now, it would probably be best to be the better person and give himself in. Cole’s father was already dead because of his rebellious spirit and Lloyd would most likely not stop suffering until he had what he wanted. Kai pressed his fingers on his cheeks, he could feel the metal jabbing into the soft skin, he huffed through his nose and curled up.

** *Beware the line break!* **

_“Well…” he turned and had a disappointed smile on his face and he stared at the raven hair for the hundredth time. “I was right, he really didn’t care about you.” He touched her icy check and pushed the soft hair behind her ear as she rested peacefully in the shinning and intricately decorated container. “I’ll always love you.” He kissed her on the forehead and slowly lowered the lid. “Say hi to our family for me…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter definitely wasn't easy to write, Kai breaking his jaw was actually an idea I got from an episode of Grey's Anatomy-that should give you some idea of when I started with this thing. And the deaf part was from my other lava fan fiction. I won't make any promises to update anything soon because I'm going through a challenging time but I hoped that you enjoyed this chapter. And if you're ever looking for some good reading and shipping goodness then check out Mad Betrayal if you haven't already; https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6674758/Mad-Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it, this fic was inspired by another I read on fanfic.net called:  
> On a String

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [What He Went Through](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9554924) by [LuciaStrawberry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuciaStrawberry/pseuds/LuciaStrawberry)




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